I think the Almanac gets people leery because it does because a combination of the already mentioned things. The Wiki may have its own set of logic and rules people don't agree with, but it's an island unto itself until people involved with it had the ability to cut out the middleman and get things changed for said wiki. People see the Collector's Club newsletter going "
I'm the bigger nerd, here's some ciphers of a foreign release you never heard about but I gave them brand new names and personalities!" is eye-rolling but expected of it, and then the wiki going "this is the only thing that matters now" as a wiki problem.
But when you take a book explicitly about one continuity and use it as a blank check to start doing your retcons to others and you yourself know the idea would have been shut down by the higher ups so fast you make the entire thing
coded secret messages as the only way to get it out there. Because they had to PotP Jazz it, it immediately sets off the red flags to people.
Also, as stated, coded secret messages to retcon every other Transformers show or comic
has nothing to do with what the book is about.
