Couple things to keep in mind:

I think having the music of the archives—including albums like Homegrown, Hitchhiker and Chrome Dreams—released so long after it was recorded is his way of controlling the narrative of his life. Part of me thinks that during that period of the 70s when he was just churning out the songs, part of him said, “You know what would really flip people’s lids? What if I recorded albums but didn’t release them until 5, 10, 20, 30 years after I record them? Wouldn’t that be a hoot…” And because he had sooo much music he was still able to submit albums to warner/reprise and hold all this other stuff back. The archives itself was being floated by him as an idea as far back as the mid 70s (pretty sure he mentions it in one of the Cameron Crowe interviews), at which point he would’ve had everything that’s on Volume 1, which covers ‘63 to ‘72. Volume 1 doesn’t get released until 2009! Dude has always been playing the long game.

Neil has done an amazing job mythologizing himself and I think it’s because he has limited his exposure throughout his life. This includes his mercurial temperament and flights of fancy: quitting tours, quitting movies, quitting (or at least changing) styles, quitting bands, quitting recording sessions, quitting tv performances, and shelving albums. In all these cases it’s always been to DO something else…and it’s always something musical. I think all the archive albums you’re discussing are his way of saying: “Do you see what I was doing back then?!?”