I accept this as Canon. Toroyama is the God of DBZ and as such they can intervene in ways that seem mysterious to us. A god can bend the rules, erase history, rewrite things, loop them back - whatever. The God of DBZ saw fit to show people what they'd been hoping to see. Thank him for it, he shared his baby with us, his whole world, which was all his, hinged on us and our world - we were profoundly lucky to be cherished by Toriyama, the least we can do is accept this gift and minor him.

Did all of this happen because we stopped watching? I don't know if I even want an answer. There is no explaining how bad things have gotten. I envy those who can enjoy this.

It was probably to threaten TB.

Nobody had the powers that TB had.

Middle-Earth is his responsibility I bet and the punk sat on his boots and let it all happen. Care free doesn't mean inherently good.