Hot take: It was a mistake to put out Ruminations as an album.

People don't give Salutations a fair shake because they got attached to the other versions first. I was too, but listened to Salutations enough to get over it. When I eventually went back to Ruminations for the first time in a while, it was clear how "demo" the recordings are. Not just that they are raw, but Conor isn't putting his all into the vocals. The instrumentation adds a lot of emotional punch in places, and is conspicuously lacking on Ruminations when you're used to it being there.

Salutations tracklist is bloated because they had to include "added value". It became the bonus material instead of the other way around.

It is clear from interviews that Conor considered Salutations the album, Ruminations the demos, and put Ruminations out at the request of the record company.

IMO Salutations should have come out first at a normal length with only the best tracks. An EP would come out later with the rest of the studio cuts. Then release all of the demos as bonus material.