As mentioned, I also find it very problematic. And it takes cheap shots - "No original members". As if that were such a big thing. Alan was not an original member, but essential to the band's second phase and TR, etc. There were only four original members, one being Mark and one being John, so it is not exactly surprising that those would not constitute a tribute band 
John and Pick both played with DS legacy a certain number of gigs, I'd say that's original members.
Not sure what you meant exactly, but "No original members" is a line from the song.
Wasn't the assumed impetus for this song "The Straits"? Wasn't that the band being discussed at the time?
For all I know, even Mark himself could play with DSL and it won't change the fact he's just a guest player there (imagine that lol!), like Pick, John or Danny. The masterminds behind this all are still Alan and Phil, the heart of the band. And the guitar player, of course.
It's one big mess that I still don't completely understand. The Straits, Dire Straits Experience, Dire Straits Legacy, so many of them! I believe after some controversy Dire Straits Legacy attempted to rename itself to DSL so as not to confuse the audience, I don't think they succeeded as it still has Dire Straits all over the place.
Why you need "original members" is beyond me. It's a pity such great music creates so much controversy, not the legacy I'd want it to have. And like a lot of things, it could've done much better. From humble beginnings to all this confusion that still reverberates to this day and likely will never go away for years to come.
Maybe you need to go to the genesis of all this...
Marco Caviglia set up a gig, I think in Italy, with his cover band, and he invites DS ex musicians to play with them, John and Alan betwen them, as far as I recall Phil was also there as he and Phil were mates from the Roma tennis club. I also think Chris was there. The ex DS members were not convinced of this but they thought that it would be funny to play the old songs with the old mates, and they do the gig.
The gig is very succesful, they had a lot of fun, and Alan, Chris and Phil decided to do one more gig, a charity gig at the RAH under the name of The Straits, that did very well too, with Steve Ferrone on drums, Micky Feat on bass and Terence Reiss on vocals and guitar.
As that gig went so well and promoters started to ask them to do more gigs, and as the audience seems to enjoy those shows, and in the end, this is work and they are proffesionals that have to pay their bills, they keep playing as The Straits. At this point, Marco Caviglia is out of the picture.
During that period, Alan and Phil start to suggest that the band should write their own songs and play them, they start playing one written by Alan called "Jesus Street", but there is a part of the band (Chris White and Terence Reiss) that prefer to play just the DS hits, consequently, Phil leaves the band as he is also very busy with sessions in Italy, and some months after, Alan leaves the band as he really wants to write songs for the band.
After that, Marco Caviglia enters again at the picture as he is friend of Phil and they form DS Legends. As Alan was playing sessions too and in many of them he was coinciding with Phil, they ask Alan to rejoin, and he does under the premise that they should write their own songs.
That new name is because of a petition of John Illsley that not using The Straits as it is confussion, Chris White that wants to keep playing the hits with Terence Reiss and other musicians, put the "DS Experience" name to his band. Now we have The Straits dividing in two bands. Mel Collins and Danny Cummings joins DS Legacy. Chris Whitten joined DS Experience as he is friend with Chris White for a series of gigs, but not permanently.
DS Legends play some gigs with John Illsley and Pick Withers but not together, and John ask them to change that "Legends" into other thing less confusing, and they agreed that "Legacy" would be better.
As both Alan and Phil keep playing a lot of sessions, many with Trevor Horn as producer, they ask Trevor to join them as bass player, that he does, and having Trevor in the band, they decide to make a record with stuff mostly written by Alan and Phil, which in my opinion is very good:
https://open.spotify.com/intl-es/album/1UzH2UlZOgcI9C7dT2PvRa?si=B6Qv_2yOQlGiDesh_FTZvABetween sessions with Trevorn Horn and others, mostly in Italy and the UK, they keep playing gigs with Trevor and in the US they are usually joined by Jack Sonni and Tommy Mandel, and they include in the set some songs of their own record and even songs from Trevor Horn legacy like "Owner of a lonely heart".
And that's where we are now, both band playing their gigs, in the case of Legacy, betwen their own studio sessions, in the case of Experience, I don't know if Chris White is still playing sessions but I'm sure the rest of musicians of the band, that are hired, they are doing sessions.
The moral thing and the sadness etc etc etc, well, in my opinion is just some of you idealizising a romantic idea of defending MK against what you consider to be an attack to him. For me it's just a bunch of ex members who still are proffesional musicians playing live gigs which, according of the number of tickets they sell, have a demand, and for them is work that pay their bills, and also they have the bless of John Illsley, who is still MK's best friend, and also everytime both bands play the DS stuff, MK gets paid.
So, following the timeline, we have that the idea didn't came from them (the ex DS members) but they started it with Caviglia just for fun and playing with old mates, and seeing the response of the fans, and that in the end, is work that pay their bills, they keep doing it, having fun playing the old songs of the band, with the old mates of the band, and for the old fans of the band, and in between, they managed to satisfy the need of Alan and Phil to write their own songs and make a record.
