...but when it was designed to be a One True History project all that kind of got ruled out.
I think even having that as a goal was a misstep.
Transformers has never had a unified continuity. Even back in G1 where you'd think it would, it didn't. The Marvel comics and Sunbow show were totally different. From day one this franchise has been all about different interpretations of broad strokes ideas.
The Beast Era was "in continuity" with G1 but didn't follow either Marvel or Sunbow, taking a bit from column A, a bit from column B, and filling in the rest with its own interpretations for its backstory.
From 2001 with RiD we were well and truly into reboots, and it's never stoped. Now it's just normal for the franchise to reinvent itself with each new show, movie, and comic series. Even comics that are supposed to be "G1" opt for their own interpretations and retellings of what "G1" is. DW, IDW (twice!), Skybound...
So for Aligned to go "this is going to be the new unified mythos and backstory forever, the one true lore dump" was foolish. Never mind that it was middling (it was), even if it had been good there was no way it was going to stick as the One True Version of the franchise from there on out. The cat was already out of the bag.
And we saw that with how the media that came out after the Covenant treated this stuff.
IDW1 reinterpreted Megatronus' murder of Solus to give her more agency, and they replaced Optimus as the last of Thirteen with the Arisen concept to throw some doubt onto that "controversial" revelation.
IDW2 just said whoever had the Matrix was the Thirteenth.
Megatronus and Solus have gone from a creepy one sided infatuation to a legitimate mutual romance, Megatronus from straight up evil to being manipulated, to being not that bad, to being the First Decepitcon
depending on the iteration.
TFO just completely de-did the group's backstory, including how they all died, and replaced Optimus/the Arisen with a totally different guy.
Now AotP seems to be reinventing things again, perhaps ditching the notion that Solus just became the planet's babymaker and running with the idea that all of the Thirteen are like the mythical patriarchs and matriarchs of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, who modern day Cybertronians will claim lineages from.
And all of this is fine. In fact it's good. Let every new take do its own thing with these concepts. In fact that's what's been happening as soon as licenced creatives got their hands on the Thirteen.
It just makes Aligned/the Covenant's pretensions as being The One Way Things Will Be Now all the more silly. Franchises with more internal consistency than Transformers still reinvent themselves with every new iteration. What chance did Transformers have?