Uh huh. Friday nights at the Holiday Inn. Again, I know your type. Jazz players in particular tend to be arrogant musical elitists who love to toss out esoteric references and pretend they are the most knowledgable in the room. I played multiple instruments for many years but always laughed behind my hand at the bull sessions where this kind of crap was earnestly discussed by my self-important fellow players.
You have to put DOFP in the mellieu of its time. What you found to be "portentous" (sic) [btw: case in point, you seem to have chosen "portentious" which means "foreboding" because it sounded more "learned" than "pretentious," which is the word I assume you meant. But I digress...] was clearly experimentation, as were the full orchestrations which expanded on the foundation work done by so many others of the time, including the MB.
Most jazz musicians I know would rather put knitting needles in their eyes than admit there was any musical quality in any album that sold more than 1,000 copies.
Perhaps the drugs you took for all those decades (or are you the only jazz musician who didn't?) have addled your memory and reasoning ability?