How are the producers responsible for rehashes? Does Brian Eno break out a guitar and tell Edge what to play? Did the same Lanois that was miffed at what U2 ended up doing on NLOTH push them towards a sound that ending up making him miffed at them? Make some sense here.
It was Bono that talked Edge back into his "Coca-Cola riff" back in 2000.
Blame that on the band. It's their music and they have the ultimate say-so.
U2 have worked with 8 different producers over 4 albums - Howie B, Flood, Nellee Hooper, Eno, Lanois, Chris Thomas, Jacknife, Lillywhite - and not one of those 4 albums was "cohesive". Not one. They were all 'Best of' the eras.
Maybe it's just time to stop blaming the producers. And/or giving them that much credit for 'new sounds' that U2 end up moving away from anyhow.
U2 will either have the goods or they won't. Regardless of who is producing. What DM/Burton gives them - is a different and younger perspective. A fresher set of years. A jolt of confidence. And if they don't listen to him, it's not going to matter. They stopped listening to Eno and Lanois.
And the ONE time we know they listened to them on NLOTH was on Moment of Surrender, pretty much the universally accepted best song on NLOTH (not my fav, but the consensus) - when E/L told them to leave it the fuck alone.
The one piece of hard evidence we have - is that quite possibly, they should have listened MORE to Eno and Lanois on NLOTH. But I know that conflicts with your 'narrative', so I wonder why I bother even as I type these words.