Great, now you just moved me to the camp of "not a sequel" because that means Anno is trolling everyone and that's my favourite Anno.
I dunno if you're being sarcastic, but If you are, I don't get why you're hating on people who are being more reserved about it and getting uppity about it, to use your words.
Evangelion has always been full of things that are ambiguous and never fully explained. Applying Occam's Razor to a fictional world where any sort of crazy thing is possible is a bit nonsensical. Instead, apply it to the context of the creation of films, and it's not a hard stretch to imagine things being thrown in there as allusions or hinted at deliberately to encourage this sort of speculation.
As I've pointed out, people seem to have embraced their confirmation bias when it comes to this sequel idea even though realistically, a lot of the supporting evidence is ambiguous and can be interpreted differently. Just because a lot of it isn't thoroughly explained doesn't mean it begs for a thorough explanation. Asking for proof that it isn't a direct sequel is like asking for proof UFOs don't exist.
I'm also not disclaiming or brushing off several things that support the sequel theory, such as much of Kaworu's dialogue in the films, the stain on the moon, etc. To me, all that just says "it could be a sequel, but it might not, we don't know." Again, my point isn't to attack those who belief in the idea, I'm just stating my point that throwing out the "we don't know" part at this stage seems rather hasty to me.
