I'm not surprised to hear Herr Froese didn't like Cyclone, given that was the only Virgin era album not at all represented on the Tangents boxset from the early 90's.
I recall when TD was interviewed in Keyboard magazine in the early 80's (I think right around the time Tangram came out, as I think Herr Schmoelling had just joined the group), either Herr Froese or Herr Franke said that Cyclone was an experiment that didn't work. I forget who it was who said that part of the problem was having a full time drummer and a reedsman/vocalist. I guess they felt that having such musicians meant they had to continuously accommodate them, ie everything had to have drums and either woodwinds or vocals, whereas I think the Chris and Edgar wanted to move into areas where that might not be appropriate.
If you even compare Force Majeure, where Herr Krieger (or Krüger, or however it's correctly spelled) was still in the band, to what they did on the very next album, Tangram, it's pretty obvious that maybe Edgar and Chris wanted to do stuff that didn't rely on drums so much. On the other hand, if you listen to some of the subsequent albums, like on Logos or White Eagle, there's quite a few things where live drums would have sounded fantastic (but there's also sections where the drummer would be sitting on his ass, waiting for his cue).
Bookmarks