Absolutely great points, I'm glad you went more in depth than I did.

The way I see it (and based on what you said), the child timeline is the only option that has any potential explanation, even if you do have to make an assumption to connect it.

Youd have to make a lot of bigger assumptions to say the timelines merged and youd have to go against developer comments to say this is just a different canon.

Also keeps all the 3d games together which I think makes sense for nintendo to want to do with those being the more mainstream titles that more people are familiar with these days.

Sorry I kinda piggy-backed off of your comment to support my own conclusion lol, where do you think botw fits then? Just a new canon or rather not wanting to definitively place it at this point? Or convergence theory?