It'll take someone smarter than me though, best I got is "trying to get facts out of fiction is a flawed way of interacting with stories, but it's also impossible not to default to that," but that feels incomplete.

Canon is canon, you can't decanonize something. But honestly? I feel like the reader's relationship with canon could do with some reevaluations. It doesn't have to be the be all end all of the experience, and it's not always a marker of quality.

There's power in "I like this story better this way."

Let it rip

But if two of the absolute most morally bankrupt publishers in the entirety of the video game industry are using it, surely that means everyone is!

M tu, Brute?

Oh, you're an oil baron plant! Got it!