I think you've hit the nail on the head.
I understand vinyl versions being slightly different because of segues between songs and whatnot, but if you make an album to conform with vinyl limitations like side lengths and whatnot, then why isn't the cd version or digital version just a replica of that? and if you make an album that fits cd limitations (74 minutes or whatever) you may have to truncate segues or songs to fit onto vinyl, but you didn't set out to make a thing for that format so no big deal. i guess i don't quite get the idea of 2 versions. but I'm not going to let it bug me too much.
I do quite like the new track. every time I listen to it I end up playing it 2 or 3 more times.
I may be imagining this, but are there a lot of folks out there who like HTDA but don't like year zero? seems like I see that come up once in a while, but I don't quite get it. maybe I'm making that up. I also used to think that lots of people really disliked YZ, but in the "rank the albums" thread it seems to show up in the top half of a lot of lists. I really like YZ and so I find it easy to really like HTDA as well. I'm crazy about TR&AR's beats. love em.