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Well, the suspected theory is that the BBC HAVE dictated that unless Neil Young gives up his right to not have his whole set filmed with bits repeated whenever they like, he can't play the festival.  Whole sets haven't been televised live for decades. The last time Neil played they showed about 5 of his songs. That's his precedent. You'd think they'd have remembered that. You've interpreted this as him behaving immaturely. He's saying he's simply making his choice.

While true, most of the songs that seem to be swapped in and out are Martin Gore's piano songs in the middle of the show. There were a few more variations on the MM tour than previous ones, but they are largely pretty stagnant.

Charli who is headlining Parklife would be a silly decision.

Those now seem to have cooled off. During the promo trail for the recent How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb remaster release, they seemed to be saying plans and new material were still being worked on, with talk that this is a Q4 2025 release at the earliest, and therefore touring for 2026 at the earliest.

The festival didn’t need centering in the heart of British culture, it would have been fine.   In fact I’d strongly argue that was the worst thing that’s happened to it.