I listened to Now and Then, the final Beatles track created from the demo John recorded many years ago.
I liked it. I thought Paul & Ringo put their approval stamp on a good piece of work. I know some people fuss that it may not be a “true” Beatles record, but I would argue it’s as much of a Beatles’ record as anything on Abbey Road/Let It Be, given that they were all mostly checked out at that point and not even in the same room for most of it.
And let’s be honest, it was a demo from John, hardly a finalized record ready product. But that’s what make it cool. Like Free as a Bird and Real Love, the tape was gifted from Yoko to Paul/Ringo/George in the hopes that something could be made from it. Paul did, what Paul does, he made something out of it (with a little help from Peter Jackson of LOTR fame).
Given that it was the “roughest” of the three, it is a wonder there was anything to come from it at all.
Say what you will about Paul, but he did not need to revisit it. He’s touring the world one more time in his own right. This MAYBE got him a little free press, but I suspect it was more about he knew it was there, he knew George had recorded parts for it, and he knew that he and Ringo weren’t getting any younger- and he wanted to get it done.
For much the same reason that George Lucas waited for technology to catch up to his ideas for Star Wars, Paul bided his time for technology to truly pull John’s voice out of that tape. And it came, and he hit it out of the park.
And I think we’re all a little better for it.