I thought Return to Monkey Island did a very good job with it, and it was indeed exactly what MI2 was trying to say and what MI1 even foreshadowed, just refined with the time away from the project. It answered "What was Ron trying to say in the MI3 he wanted to write?" and it ended up doing it without diminishing Curse, Tales, or even Escape, and somewhat including them in the fun. (More Curse and Tales than Escape, it certainly ignored/retconned Escape events, but Escape's appeal has always been smaller.)