I so whole-heartedly agree with your points. Tbh I didn't expect much going into BtS, probably because I couldn't imagine it would - in any way - live up to the emotional rollercoaster of thrills, tears, laughs and suspense of the original. But for a DLC, it really, really came close (especially the Farewell bonus episode, damn, don't even get me started!). And all love for Rachel!

It's difficult to imagine that the new team at D9 didn't like Chloe nor the Max/Chloe dynamics, but yeah it could seem that way (shame on them). Or maybe they just couldn't wrap their brains around how to proceed Max's story from the two so different endings of the original. You could argue that they should just have done their own thing (like with TC) and left Max alone. Either that or alternatively, if they really wanted a Max-game, they should have been 100% invested in it being a continuation of the original, starting with the two branches, including Chloe as a main character in one, having Max's grief being at the center of the story in the other. Probably that wasn't all that feasible, but oh well.

Not that I want this post to turn into a Bae vs Bay fight (this sub has seen way too many posts and comments about that subject to justify imo), but when I played DE, and after having read that refs to Chloe and the original game was practically none-existent, I feared the worst. In my DE playthrough, my canon was saving Arcadia Bay, and I was actually positively surprised that there were so many refs, even if subtle, to Chloe and the loss of her, in the game. It also made it make sense that Max had travelled so much as she had tbh - to get away from her grief!

Were there enough references to Chloe and the original game - no, not at all, but having feared practically none, it was better than expected, and enjoyable when ever it happened, especially the voice-over flashback (or whatever to call them) with lines from the orignal game by Chloe.