To argue against you it's more like Enshittification of ASOT, Armin van Buuren and Trance in General he ruined the genre completelyKids nowadays have the attention span of a chihuahua on cocaine - try playing a 90-120sec breakdown in a club You'll see what I mean.
I too quite often find myself choosing his 2003 Essential mix ()
To his defence - he clearly is a talented musician and entertainer. Also quite a businessman. But considering the sheer volume of gigs he plays he at some point wanted to evolve to some direction just out of boredom. Also the industry changed quite a lot.