Through season 1 episode 4 it shows you can rewrite reality without branches but risk some type of incursion maybe that’s what happened with Miguel’s spiderverse canon events, maybe that’s the og plan the multiverse saga had which is why the second part of the film aka beyond the spiderverse is delayed to align with secret wars.
Maybe this will also clear up whether most of the returning villains in no way home are variants since the main marvel wiki says all are even sandman but yet both wikis agree there are two Laura’s by the time of Deadpool or rather different ages of the same verison.
Also it seems like maybe what seems to differ in whether a branch forms or not is how if it’s closer to quantum aka artificial tech or more natural magic powers that risk greater chances of incursions.
Theres a line from Thor that says Asgard being about how magic and science are one and the same, what if that’s the solution of having a balance of branches and modifying timelines without risk of incursions, and maybe why Loki’s power is able to make that possible. Could it have been retroactively foreshadowing this the whole time of retconning all types of time travel? @RJ Plotner