That has got to be one of the most miserable jobs you can do with a white collar. Imagine trying to asspull Watsonian explanations for questions that only have Doylist answers to people who will mail you anthrax if you just tell them the truth, which is that Nintendo doesn't give a shit about lore.
Yup. I'm a fan of lore in a lot of series, but that's not why I play Zelda.
I play Zelda because it's fun. I like the creative puzzles that aren't super hard, but hard enough to require a little bit of thinking. I like that there's progression, but no leveling system, so a lot of the progression is learning to use new tools. I like the silly side quests.
I've never really been interested in Zelda lore, so I'm honestly okay with things not quite lining up. I guess I see each entry as a separate universe where Link saves Zelda in a different way each time. Zelda games rarely have direct sequels, and I think that was the real mistake this time around. Just let me fight Ganon or whatever in a new cycle every time, I don't need any kind of story coherency.
People have simply assumed the reason behind the disappearance to likely be related to ancient Sheikah technology and it seems there is no one who has tried to explore the matter further
Oh yeah, it's not like in-universe a bunch of nerds was absolutely obsessed with the stuff and all associated mysteries.
Look, I don't even mind if the explanation is just "we got rid of them because they're not necessary for the new story we're telling", that works for me. But if you try explaining it anyway, and that's your answer, boooo.
Agreed. They could just say that Link isn't as interested in Sheikah technology because it's no longer needed, so the game doesn't render it. It could still exist in-universe without having set pieces in the game.