I think that's the whole idea.
When Stapp released his album he didn't know what the response was going to be. He had every right to believe that, with Weathered being a monster hit, the album could go Platinum and he could still be playing to arenas.
Unfortunately, this was not going to happen due to the reasons given in my previous post. Stapp has now tested the water and realized that he has to go back to square one and build his career again. The only way he can do this is to branch out to a different crowd and also show the 'closet' Creed fans he's not a waste of space. There's still a huge fan base out there for him IF he can get things right.
To open for INXS is both interesting and brave - but what has he got to lose?