I’ve viewed it as artistic progression, plain and simple, similar to the Beatles, but I think we’re basically saying the same thing.

I kind of split the Beatles into before and after Revolver. Revolver is a truly brilliant album that also acts as a nice bridge between the two major eras that I think of the Beatles run. Their Beatle-Mania Pop Sensation era culminating (masterfully) in Rubber Soul on one side, their Concept era on the other. And Revolver an era unto itself; the Beatles Fully Embrace Getting Weird era.

I feel like OK computer represents a similar point in Radiohead’s artistry to Revolver.

But in both cases, I think these are more milestones in their artistic ability than an intentional shift leveraging their previous success. But I’m not sure you meant that this was intentional on their part, so I may just be agreeing with your nonopinion in a ruminative meandering way.