The more I think about this the more I realize WotC is distancing itself from past game products. In a way I think they're trying to erase history.....without erasing history, if that makes sense.
Essentially, yes.
IMHO this is not about "cannon". Crawford in true SJW fashion, is using a word that means one thing to mean something else.
What they are really talking about is the D&D
Lore. (Past modules and settings). And their willingness to mine them for ideas and then completely re-write them to bring them
“in line with modern sensibilities”. WOTC is making a bet.
That any fan over 30 that actually liked past D&D/TSR material the way it was;
does not matter to the future of WOTC D&D.
Based on the sales of NuRavenloft, and their own internal surveys showing that the pre 3e D&D players are a minority of their current customer base, they are essentially signaling that nothing done in the past is sacrosanct, and that they will re-write past D&D Lore as needed to bring it in like with their current year woke political worldview.
Yes, yes, we all know “In your home game…”.
But the fact is that a lot of long time players got invested in the D&D IP. And WOTC has basically just said:
"Fuck off losers. We’re all about the new cool kids! "IMHO the timing of this might have to do with the fact that new DragonLance books are coming out by Hickman and Weiss, and WOTC may release a DragonLance setting book that retcons huge swaths of H&W established Lore.
We'll see how this plays out...