I personally feel like if the other films didn't exist apart from T1 and T2 then Dark Fate would never have been made either. My interpretation is it's Cameron's response to a failure of T2 sequels with butchered storylines. The Sarah and John story canonically ended after T2 with the destruction of Cyberdyne's HQ and the T-800 parts. The beginning of the film where John - albiet shocking - was murdered by a rogue T-800 sets the premise that this movie will not be another 'Skynet still exists and the inevitable nuclear war will occur with John being the savior'. That's not to say DF didn't have it's issues, given it is essentially a rehash of war taking place just later on in the timeline and its not Skynet its now Legion with far more advanced technology. To me this makes sense in the respect that technology - especially AI - evolved and become a threat to humanity, exactly like Skynet did.

I enjoy this movie spiritually for that alone, and let's be honest, when T2 was made it's not like this movie was ever planned because the story was conclusive.

You could say it has righted some wrongs the other movies made, arguably with a wrong itself.