You could just make the plot an indecipherable mess like the Souls games, then order doesn’t matter!

Silksong achieved this for me personally, as in Acts 1 and 2, the only references to Hollow Knight are vague allusions to Hornet’s origins, lines like “I’ve seen such things before”, or characters referring to her as a “higher being”.

Act 3, which takes some pretty diehard completionist play to access, goes further and gives us some direct new information on the lore of Hollow Knight, and I’d say only the true ending would have anything that’s inscrutable to a totally new player.

It strikes a good balance, IMO, and I’d feel comfortable recommending Silksong without playing Hollow Knight, if I thought they could handle the difficulty without the skills developed by playing Hollow Knight. I’d be very happy with future games following this formula.

I don’t see any problem with that. The worlds’s lore could just be told through different sets of characters eyes.

I don’t even pay attention to game lore anyway. So as long as gameplay is good, I’m alright.