I agree that the current storyline is very Shinji-centric, and a lot of people spend the film doing not much, but that doesn't mean they hadn't done anything beforehand.

No, that is precisely what it means, particularly in the context of an argument to counter the original allegation that "the characters are now liberated from Shinji".

While you may imagine things that happened, the truth is that they didnt. It is fan fiction.

I have argued this in the past and in the OP, explaining that all 3.0 does is in fact leave room for the otaku imagination - rather than being meaningful in itself. This how one successfully panders by providing shallow and superficial entertainment. The vapid and loyal otaku will in absence of story, plot and character development simply pretend there are such things - only off screen.

Shinji does more than just show up - there quite literally is no movie without him. There wasnt even any passage of time without Shinji.

This is important in disproving the notion that the story is free from Shinji.