I am more interested in the human psychology part of this, common flaws in human cognition and cognitive biases. I'm more interested in that than I am in the questions:

• was this Bungie's intent?
• does it make sense in our universe?
• do I like it as a story?

And I see the intent question as entirely separate from the other two.

This issue shows how far people will go to "forget" things that they don't want to remember. It is fairly scary because you would think that my old post was unforgettable. Of course you wouldn't think that if you knew people and how their minds work. As a species we are piss poor thinkers. (All of us) And our biases are very predictable.

The best example of cognitive biases (esp confirmation bias) is The Indoctrination theory. It is the closest analogue of religious thinking without actually being a religion. It shows that the problems with religious thinking are not unique to religion but are just common human cognitive problems.

There exist people on t'Internet who say they believe that ME4 will start with Shep waking up in London, free from Indoctrination and ready to finish the fight.