I love how Nikita keeps saying he does not give story related answers, and then proceeds to answer the most loud people, who always seek his attention.
there are already inconsistencies with the original HN and the years(back then N. said 19 years passes between act 2 and 3, which made Nicky ~32, also Neighbor's age just keeps being changed nonstop), but when I say "I don't care about the canon" this is what I mean.
"the canon" was written by, like 5 people. Nikita, Carly, Alex, comic writer guy, cartoon writer guys etc. have fun staying consistent and communicating, who added what, it is impossible.
it is nonstop changing, if you ask him about the lore in 2016, he talks about Faust, if in 2017 June, he talks about the Family storyline. it is endlessly changing, just look how HN3 started, it started as RBO.
never was Aaron and Nicky's in-game friendship mentioned, ever. Carly started this friend thing, and they caught up. some details like this basically don't matter, from the big perspective. like Nicky re-lives the trauma and overcomes fear and moves on. (in the end of HN, Nicky thinks of Theodore especially, and wonders what happened to him, hinting that he did NOT know the Neighbor's kids, who are shadow figures. the original focus is on Nicky and the Neighbor and it should have stayed like that, bc it is about the Neighbor and the Player originally).
"everything is canon but not the way you think" and "it is because of Mayak" which was a catchphrase in 2020, I just stopped caring. GOOD FOR THEM! but I'll rather work on my own stuff, instead of spinning my head nonstop, what gets retconned? what gets modified, is this canon, is that canon??? this is unwillingly like the Spider-verse, where the same base events happen, but differently with each Spider-man.
"canon" is flexible as Alex CEO said, and people are overrating canon. people are arguing about canon, people are mentally abusing others because of "canon".
in media, which exists, to let people have a good time or give them some kind of enjoyment.