Remedy very much wanted to do Alan Wake 2 but MS turned it down. There's very little to disagree with here.
But that still doesn't somehow suggest that they're any less passionate or excited about Quantum Break is what I'm saying. And not being their first choice doesn't mean they'd much prefer to be making an Alan Wake sequel. When they likely pitched an Alan Wake sequel who knows if they even had Quantum Break in mind, but
This is how things work a lot of times. You make a pitch, it isn't accepted, and then you go back to the drawing board and see what ideas you can come up with that not only the publisher may like, but something that the team as a whole can also get excited and passionate about, and unless Quantum Break is somehow in a strange development hell, I think Remedy is likely happier for having gone with the development of Quantum Break over Alan Wake 2. Remedy always struck me as a team that enjoyed a challenge, and Quantum Break, when you factor in that time stutter mechanic they're going for and the different ways they plan to utilize time in action as well as adventure based gameplay, seems like it will have plenty to keep them busy. The game, based on what they plan to do, likely has a number of impressive set pieces along similar lines to what we saw in that bridge scene, which means the amount of work that has to go into a scene to set all that up is probably a more serious undertaking than people realize.
Based on what I've seen so far, Quantum Break isn't at all very far removed from the type of game that Remedy likes to make. It's firmly in their wheel house, and if they pull it off as good as they can, it could end up being the best game they ever made.