Time is another factor. With all three Volition projects on my plate, there are not many hours left for reading. Because FS2 takes place three decades after FS1, players will have lots of room to explore, create, and elaborate. I love the fact that it's impossible to speak of the FreeSpace universe monolithically. The mythos expands with every story and mission that players create.
Heterodoxy is a good thing.
I worked a season on a potato harvester 13 years ago. In northern Maine, you'd get a three-week vacation from school to harvest potatoes. You would stand on the harvester and work over two conveyor belts. You had to sort the rocks from the potatoes. The rocks were dumped in piles on the ground, and the potatoes went in a truck that drove alongside the harvester.