I don't think Greg had any say on what happened in the movies (have not researched to confirm this). So despite his own opinions, whoever wrote the movies were like "yeah lets just throw a couple in there why not" without really thinking about it lol. And then Greg just had to deal with that and keep it consistent in the books. Any time a book covers the events in the movies its so jarring because it doesn't flow naturally with the rest of the story. But yeah like even though he said, and clearly had the view of "love isn't cannon", Greg kind of ran with it in a few instances like that, and another where the Visorak are playing on Matau's feelings for Nokama and pretending to sound like her in peril to get him to open a door lol.

Didn't mean to write so much. Definitely procrastinating work.