As I sit here groovin' to the Bethel Waves soundcheck, I'm baffled by the notion that you can't judge the music if you weren't there. I wasn't in Bethel on May 26th , but this is 28 minutes of tasty Phish. Furthermore, I wasn't fortunate enough to be at SB IX, but I listened to almost all of it via the stream and have revisited much of it since then and I think the OP is dead on several points, though I agree with Scott that 7/2 set III is being undervalued a bit. Now saying I don't think most of SB IX will stay in the rotation doesn't mean I wouldn't have had a great time - by all accounts the weather, venue, vibe, light show, etc. was fantastic and I'm sure it would have been a memorable experience
But let's be honest, just because we go to a show, doesn't make it great, or even very good from a musical perspective. We know it when it happens and we definitely know it when we listen later.