> Laughing at this quote, considering some of his more recent scores... it's like the Zimmer of today is almost a completely different person...

At least one writer has speculated Zimmer got a bit self-conscious about 'tunes' in the mid aughts. There are quotes from around the time Batman Begins came out where Zimmer said the commercial realities of modern moviemaking might not even give him the latitude to write themes like he did in Gladiator (ever in the perpetual quest to avoid another rejected score, the man was).

But Zimmer has been talking up both reinventing genres and reinventing himself in interviews since at least the mid-90s (don't wanna just do Rain Man again, don't wanna do Black Rain again, etc.), so it's entirely possible he just decided he didn't want to be that kind of artist anymore and/or avoid getting stale.