Science Fiction

but it seemed to fuel a bad trend of cramming virtually every hero into a plot line every few years (see Secret Wars on the Marvel side). I always thought it was superior to Secret Wars.

I think the original concept of rebooting every 20 years or so was a good one. The Flash of Two Worlds was a masterful solution that JLA later took and ran with. Having the Justice Society on Earth 2 made sense. The reimagings of the Flash and Green Lantern being explained in this fashion was also good. It was a such a good idea that Marvel has taken it and ran with it.

Collapsing all the heroes down into one reality was a bad idea, and you are right that it spawned a multitude of later sins.

I didn't mind either death if they stuck like Gwen Stacy. There should be consequences. Barry and Kara could come back in the next rebooted Earth.

You are right about Routh. He was the best thing about the confusing Superman Returns. In fairness to him the seeds of its destruction was set by the decision to have Superman wipe Lois Lane's memory in Superman II. That was an awful decision. Singer hinted around the edges of the implications of it, but even he was unwilling to take it head on. I thought it made great sense to continue the story line from Superman II. I would like to give out other mulligans.

Continue Aliens from Alien II (Aliens)
Continue Michael Keaton's Batman from Batman Return
Continue Terminator from Terminator II (maybe they are doing this)
A Tobey Maguire Spider-Verse dark universe with Morbius, Venom continuing from Spider-Man II