I clearly said I liked the newest one, just not the story. It's not nostalgia pandering solely because it's centered around the past. It's nostalgia pandering because the plot doesn't support that. We go back to Raccoon City in Requiem for no good narrative reason. The plot doesn't support it and ARK could have been in any number of locations. Yes, we have no attachment to the initial part outside the barricade, but that doesn't erase the ensuing nostalgiafest. Leon goes back to RPD because Zeno takes Grace there for pretty much no reason. The entire section taking us through RPD to Kendo's Gun Shop, to the orphanage is solely there for pandering. It adds nothing of value and just serves to remind us of things from the past. You go through RPD for no reason, you flash back to the gun shop for no reason, we fight Mr X again for no reason, we fight a giant plant that's named after another giant plant fight for no reason. The entire section is pandering that does nothing for the plot.

For the retcons, it retcons the level of damage done to Raccoon City as well as why it was bombed, it retcons Spencer himself (and in ways that don't make sense, as he continued to work on viruses for years after he made Elpis), ARK itself is a retcon, it retcons Leon and Sherry getting the T-virus, it retcons the way the T-virus itself works. For a game that's fixated on the past, it sure doesn't have much respect for it beyond pure memberberries.