Bingowings said:

But after 5 and by the looks of things this one the universe it's set in is now so removed from the real one it just becomes another fantasy universe.

There has always been a large dollop of suspension of disbelief with these games (how else can you survive Barry Burton's dialogue) but it has become too overblown and I can't see how it can pull back without a REboot.

Very good points throughout your whole post. I've always considered the series kind of ridiculous, but I never consciously stopped to consider the points you brought up.

By this point enough incidents have happened on a large enough scale that the whole world would have to be aware of them. And 6 looks like it is setup to out do them all on the "overblown" scale.