Don't Roll Your Eyes At Me Boy!!!
Alright dude, before you claim im throwing a hissy fit, or go into one yourself, im just gonna point something out. You said that when ALttP was released, it was released as a sequel. which was taken by me as being like Zelda II aka AoL was and being a direct sequel following LoZ. Then if you read both stories, ALttP doesn't really have anything to do with AoL because Link does not already know Zelda, who he had just saved at the end of AoL. Do you get what im saying. Yeah it was Zelda III to most of us, or a Super Legend of Zelda respectively to those who were waiting to get it back in 92.
So it was never meant to be an actual "sequel", no more than it was meant to be a prequel. Its more of its own thing as far as the "And so, on an ill-fated night, a new chapter in the legend of Hyrule's hero begins--a new chapter in the Legend of Zelda --Page 7" comment..... all i have to say is; fair enough. However i think that is more game talk than actual story reference.
That's why this has become a debate between opinions more than anything.
However something did just dawn on me. But I'll leave that to you to bring it up. Which is what makes these forums so fun!