As an amateur artist, I can say, one never downgrade / sabotage oneself, unless you just want to cash a quick buck and called it a day, being an artist is a never ending evolving process, whereas the artist always wants to breakthrough, to become better, to step further ahead on the artistic path
Honestly, haven't follow this artist at all, but regarding the old stuff and the new one, is hard to say that there's some sort of advance, the styles varies, yes, however you have to put yourself on the shoes of the artist and understand their point of view in order to say if the artist is doing it for money or for artistic passion
As for me, IMHO, the artist is on a runt, and is just going with the flow, doing some sutff just to earn some cash, but as an artist, he's stuck