The new Shadow Isles lore shows fans accept change
When it makes sense and doesn't completely rip everything they've invested their energy in apart.
Riot has stated multiple times that fans don't like much of their new work because change is scary. The past two lore releases have basically proven that stance false. What we don't like is arbitrary, needless change that ends up weakening a strong theme and coming off as an overall downgrade (Ashe becoming a naive idealist. Cassiopea's motivation and story flip. Shy Ezreal. Trundle getting deleted.)
When fans are upset by a sudden upheaval ala retcon rather than story progression, maybe Riot should stop and rethink their strategy rather than going full "nanny knows best."
Also, almost 2 years later and everything Riot has "rebuilt" so far all could have existed with the IoW in place with minimal tweaks.
new Lore is pure Art! They made it all fitting with the entire sequence of lores he's had and added some deep characterization and badassery.