i wouldn't really call them "what if" stories, at this point. i think a lot of that came out of negative fan reception to the epilogues. though i don't really know what calling anything "optional media" is in, like, a world with 500 sequels and spin-offs to everything. like, yeah, everything's optional media. homestuck is optional media. a lot of people stopped reading at cascade, at game over, at collide. you can skip literally anything. i don't really see that as a metric. so you're free to not like the shit you don't like, even i'm not a homestuck 100% runner, but i feel like introducing sentiments such as "didn't like, didn't read" to whether it counts in an objective sense is kinda silly.