Can you compare the two? AA!, whether you like the music or not, is the biggest band in that side of the scene. Much bigger than FTSK were at any point I would argue, and especially much bigger than FTSK six months ago when they opted to go that way.
If they grow their fan base with this record (which seems to be working) and play the, "support us! we're on our own now!" card, I think they'll be probably alright.
If they sold 19K copies again and did it completely on their own, that's a nice amount of money on top of all merch income, tour income, etc