of course they're going to say that shit. it's typical malleable protagonist pr from companies who don't want to give definitive answers that could make the neckbeards who wanna fuck the npcs angry.

it's the same reason people will ride-or-die insist the girl mc in genshin is just as canon as the male mc, despite her never appearing in any official game or character trailers as the protag, because someone asked the devs and was given a vague non-answer to make everyone happy.