Yeah I definitely disagree with the Motley & Queensryche thing. Tho I will say Operation was just a different style than Empire but both great nonetheless. Theatre gets no credit at all, even from the band as they hate it too but I don't agree. There are some great songs on Theatre when you take out Smokin' in the boys room.
Van Halen III was better than Diver...I know you aren't comparing those two but DD sucked pretty bad.
'Diver ...' has Roth on it. And 'The Full Bug'. For me, that puts it head and shoulders above 'III', which just sounded awful (especially after 'Balance')
'Empire' has always been too soft for my liking ... I love the title-track, and 'Another Rainy Night ...', but it was just too much of a change after 'Rage ...' and '... Mindcrime'.
As for 'Theatre ...' ... well, it came after 'Shout ...', which is a stone-cold classic in these 'ere parts