I guess the fade outs are just to give the product a more professional and polished effect.
If you take one of the complete sessions for instance from the 'Theres Always Me' set and you wanted to use a particular take you have to make a decision as to where to make the start and end cuts.
As the takes merge into one another (often ending abrubtly) with only studio banter and engineer announcements to separate them .......I guess a lot of the time fading out before the tracks break down give the best effect for a compilation CD ........certainly why they would do this on a CD such as 24 Carat Gold is no big mystery.
Woooo genesim only one more post and you are on a staggering 300 !!!!!