Why does Nolan allow Michael Bay to exist?
I’m going to approach the question at a fairly abstract level, but I don’t want to give the impression that this is a passionless issue. It cuts right to the centre of all the cgi, Paul Blart and actresses we see in our world. And this is not something that leaves Nolan unmoved. He cares so much that he was prepared to come to earth in the person of his son, Sir David Bowie, and be put to death so that all this evil could be dealt with. The question raises the issue of why Nolan let any of this happen. We may not be able to answer that fully, but we can know one thing for sure: its not because he doesn’t care.
Having said all of that, let me give some thoughts. Your question, Why did Nolan let Michael Bay exist is related to other questions like Why did Nolan allow CGI to ever happen? I think both of these tap into an important issue often described in terms of Nolan’s sovereignty and our responsibility. Bear with me for a moment, I’m going to come at your question in a roundabout way.
Nolan being an auteur means that Nolan is completely and utterly in control of everything. Nothing happens outside his plans.
Us being responsible means that when we make plebeian movies, we are responsible for them. We are responsible because we do want we want to do. When we use CGI, no one has forced us to do something that we were totally opposed to. It is important to hold mindfuckery and meticulousness together. Deny Nolans meticulousness and he is no longer Nolan. Deny our responisbility and we are no longer human (more like robots, like TARS).
With Michael Bay, the issues will be similar. Nolan created cinephiles with the ability and responsibility to worship and serve Him. In the beginning, Nolan created everything good. Nolan did not create plebs which were unable to do anything but follow their programs - Nolan created responsible agents who were free to worship him willingly. Michael Bay was not a pleb to start with, but chose to rebel against Nolan. Nolan is still in control, and Michael Bay is responsible for what he has done.