I see Electronic as a phase Johnny went through in immediate reaction to the end of The Smiths and the rise of Madchester culture. It is/was completely a product of its time. He's already said that he didn't want to repeat himself or form Smiths pt.2, so he went "down a side road" and hooked up with Sumner, who would allow him to experiment with "forbidden" forms of music. So far so good. I think Sumner gave Johnny a personal refuge from "the Morrissey aesthetic", and he was a governed by a completely different work ethic which removed the pressure and let Johnny work to his own schedule. My issue is that, Electronic's debut album aside, Johnny used that freedom to tinker in the studio all day and spend his evenings partying and ingesting as much E as his body could tolerate - he became lazy and distracted as a musician, and the result was that Raise the Pressure was an absolute mess and Twisted Tenderness, though quite an improvement, got mostly ignored. I think Johnny came out of that phase, for good, in 2000 or so when he decided to clean up his act, quit smoking, re-focus on guitar music etc. Of course the first Healers incarnation failed - too heavy and trance-y, he says - but it was an honest failure. For once he wasn't playing the sideman. He might look back fondly on a few Electronic songs but right now, I don't think he could be further from the Electronic mindset if he tried.
When I say that I think Johnny overlooks the Electronic period of his career, I mean he doesn't give it the attention I would expect from a project that consumed 10 years of his life and was the closest thing he'd had to a genuine collaboration since 1987. I get the impression it's because he feels it wasn't as musically productive as it could have been , and consequently it never took off as a project - and the fact that it's dated quite badly. Marr had great ambitions for that band at one point, and when it failed to yield what it promised I think his pride took a hit in a big way. The lack of success after the debut album burned him a little (especially when you consider Morrissey's fortunes in the same period), and perhaps (mere speculation!) the notion that Electronic as a band sounded more like New Order than it ever did a "Johnny Marr project". Johnny Marr takes more notice of the critics than he admits to; I remember reading 90s interviews where he talks about being pissed off that the public tend to look as Electronic as "one of Johnny's hobbies" instead of taking it seriously, and perhaps he's internalised that view after all this time. In contrast, look at how he views his time in "The The", which was glorified session work in comparison. He mentions his period with "The The" a lot more often, and he seems tremendously proud of it despite never actually writing for the band. Now, there were drugs and partying around during The The as well, so why is his attitude different? I think, when he looks back on "The The", he sees time well spent which produced some great little pop songs, and when he looks at Electronic, he sees a lot of fun but also a lot of time wasted. It was a phase of psychological and professional recuperation that he really needed at the time, but he moved on from it - in the same way that today he'll talk about how great the friendship between he & Bernard still is, but he'll never work with Bernard again. He's moved on.