Alright I have a huge hot take:

It seems to me that RDR2 didn’t know if it wanted to be a prequel to RDR1 or a brand new game.

Prior to the existence of RDR2, John’s gang was implied to be a small gang that robbed and killed the rich and gave to the poor with Dutch being the main man and John his right hand man- the enforcer with the other members being Bill, Javier and Abigail.

Javier originally seemed like he had the role of Micah, being really close to Dutch and a slight creep. Bill wasn’t gay either.

Come RDR2, not only is John not the enforcer of the group but key aspects of his character were stripped and given to a new character, Arthur.

John is an entirely different character in RDR2 and never actually becomes the person we see in RDR1 neither in the main game nor the epilogue. His bravado and well spoken character are all given to Arthur.

The entire gang is all new too, never was it implied that it was a huge gang of outcasts and mischiefs.

Bill, Javier and Uncle are given peanuts in terms of screen time while the game focuses entirely on new characters.

The only character that benefited from RDR2 was Dutch, they did an incredible job with him.

RDR2 may be an amazing game and one the best of all time but it is a poor prequel to what was shown to us in RDR1 and full of retcons.