I guess your the leading authority on the subject?
See Hollywood has us ( or should i say some of you) all brainwashed, into thinking we need a 'window into a world we might not necessarily know'. We need to see the TF's through the eyes of someone else. Well i think that's hogwash, and i think that generic formula is getting rather stale. But what's done is done now, no good changing things for TF2, cause then the movies won't merge together.
The start of this discussing involved the fact that Sam, and the other character of TF1 'needed' to come back. Well i disagree. Why not see the TF's through the eyes of different characters. Maybe even in a different country/continent altogether like Asia, Africa, etc.
I have a news flash for you copyright: Sam is not the mold that is holding the TF franchise together; the Transformers are..and have been for the last 20 + years. And will continue doing so.