Something along the lines of what you first described, makes Beat my favorite from that trio of albums. To me it has the most… humanity? Soul? (ETA: But Three… was the first of these that I purchased.)
I don’t think I ever noticed this! I first had the cassette (purchased 1988), then the CD (1992?).
Someone at the guitar store where I was taking lessons hipped me to them. At that point I’d figured KC was something along the lines of Jethro Tull and I wouldn’t have had much interest. But by then I was into Bowie, and through him I learned more about Fripp and Brian Eno.
But speaking of the Zappa continuum, the same guy who told me about KC was pointing out that Steve Vai was on the (then) new PiL album. He also told me about Ornette Coleman, who was from Ft. Worth, just a few miles away (at that point Song X would’ve just come out, although Caravan of Dreams had just opened a few years earlier, too)
He used to (maybe still does?) teach these Guitarcraft classes; I missed out on one when they had it in Austin. I was told that everyone came away sounding like Robert Fripp, but whoever told me that didn’t make it sound like a bonus.
