As for the public perception of the concert, whether or not he was playing old hits, if the guy is selling those kinds of tickets, he's relevant. You cant be a hasbeen and sell 750'000 tickets to a concert. He could play songs exclusively from the 80s and 90s but if you're putting on the kind of show they intended and getting those kinds of numbers, you're a factor TODAY.
I often like to think of what may have happened after a tour. I think This Is It was to be, and should have remained, his last concerts. But I think another album or two by now had he lived is totally feasible. Maybe see him go in a completely different direction musically and leave pop behind. Venture into orchestral music, opera. Maybe some musical production. He was still interested in movies so there could have been some soundtracks he could have done. I think This Is It had the potential to put Michael Jackson back on the map. The crowd was there. The stage was set. All he needed to do is show up and be Michael Jackson.
Unfortunately, he was unable to do that. Drug addiction is an absolute bitch. 50 shows was way too much to ask of him and I often wonder why they arrived at such a lofty number. Greed? Well the greed should have been met with practicality, and practically, a 50 year old man who is hardly in the world's best shape isn't going to do 50 shows.
I think if it stuck to 10 shows, they may have actually happened. 10 shows with the option to extend is what the deal should have been. But I think Michael was well and truly overwhelmed by the enormity of the task. Also by what it meant. It had been well over a decade since his last tour. Since then he'd watched his world fall apart, his name turn to almost nothing, his last attempt at an album flopped by his standards, and now he had the eyes on the world on him. If he's not up to it, not only is he over, but his reputation tarnished. His financail situation even more desperate than before. It was one hell of a burden to ask of him.
I think if Michael were only asked 10 shows, he'd be alive today. We probably would have got more than 10 shows, and they would have been some of the greatest concerts of all time, innovating the form and elevating the art. Instead, he was surrounded by greedy scoundrels and a suspiciously negligent doctor. And of course he was a victim of his own self. Had Michael had the will to pull himself out of his dependance, he could have. had he been honest about his dependance he could have sought treatment before the tour. There are a lot of "what ifs" as far as the last moments of Michael Jackson.
I often like to think about what the This Is It concert could have been. I think it would have been the crowning achievement of his career. The final curtain call. The best possible ending for an icon. That is how he deserved to go out. He would have stepped away from performing and lived his life out doing whatever projects suited him, financially secure, his legacy in his own hands. In an alternate universe that is what happened for Michael Jackson.