I disagree. The music is ridiculously progressive imo. When I first heard abut it in Modern Drummer, it was classified as progressive, and everything I've ever read about it says it is too. That's really the only argument I can make about that. It's pretty tough to prove something like that, but you definitely know what your talking about.
MiKe Portnoy is a self proclaimed 'more is more, and more is better" drummer. Yeah his drumset is a fucking monstrosity. infact he put together a 5 peice just for one of the songs on I forget which album just to try and get away from all the different instruments and play straight ahead rock. He does use most of his equipment though throughout the DT catalog. even the crotales and white noise maker. Definitely one of the best in the world. He does drum clinics all over the place.
Danny Carey is also one of the best in the world, and definitely progressive in every sense of the word. Technically flawless, possibly from his drum and bugle corps background. I doubt there is anyone in the world that can play a 3 over 4, which is the foundation of many of the tool tunes, in more interesting and original ways.
Both of these guys are in my top ten fav drummers, and equally as talented imo.
