The same thing happened with Journey, and also The Tubes. Early stuff was great but didn’t sell, so they went pop.
By commercial I assume your refering to Completion Backwards Principal and Outside Inside
They weren’t awful. Love Bomb was awful.
Remote Control was probably my favorite.
Side note, I saw Todd Rundgren this spring and couldn’t belive it, Prairy Prince was the drummer. After the show the band came rushing out the backstage door through the hallway where I was standing. I yelled at Prairy and he stopped to shake my hand. Very cool.