It wasn’t just Phil, heck, listen to Mike and the Mechanics, it was all three going the Pop-Rock route, they just wanted to be done with the long epic proggish stuff. Heck, Yes, did the same thing with 90125. It was the 80s, if you wanted to stay relevant you had to change with the times.
Seems to me that Pete went pretty “Pop-Rock” in the 80s as well. Sledgehammer, anyone?