: For example, I'm certain the monitors ("guilty",
: "penitent") were meant to be slivers of the original
: sinner...likely MB in some early form. I'm also reasonably convinced that
: humans were meant to be Forerunner with a forgotten history.

: Some early pieces simply don't fit what we know today.

What bothers me is I don't know if the changes have benefited the Halo story. Would the story be better if we were the Forerunners? Is the concept of an ancient human civilization that fought Flood and Forerunners too deep?

I guess it's not too deep, since there appears to have always been ancient humans since the concept of Halo 1. Which actually helps me accept the ancient human war stuff better.