Never said it was outside the MCU. Just said it can stand in its own. You don’t need to watch Hawkeye to enjoy it. And I doubt you’ll need to watch echo to enjoy/follow along with Daredevil or whatever else lies ahead. We may ever even see Echo again. That’s what I mean by it stands alone.
They’ll take 5 minutes of footage from whatever series they need to and get people up to speed.
Can’t speak to much for the other things you mentioned. I think they had a budget of $40 million for the 5 episodes. A mere drop in the bucket compared to many of the other series. Didn’t bother me as much as it did you, I suppose.
I went in expecting another secret invasion, or worse. But I came out understanding each characters motives (albeit very basic) and could genuinely sympathize with what they’re were trying to accomplish. It was a very simple story, for sure.
What I did get out of it is that I need to watch this Netflix Daredevil series.