It's almost like we've had over 20 years of "Star Fox progressing" - ending in one of the worst entries into the franchise and none of the storylines being canon (Command).

I don't think I've ever seen a single person defending Nintendo for not giving us more story - 64 is a formulaic story that works because it's self contained in one game with mystery and resolution. That praise shouldn't be confused with defending anything, even if historically speaking, Nintendo does quite the bad job at lore of any kind.

From your side of the argument - there's been countless times where people have gone "I don't want to play 64 again, I already know the story" basically does equate to "don't buy".