As I wrote in my review, the Pretenders element to the story is not something well known enough to the average fan or even non-fans of the Transformers cartoon/toys. I felt that since this film had such mainstream appeal, the story should have explained why Pretenders existed and given us some back story. You are looking at this from an invested fan who knows the history of Transformers well. Look at it from the perspective of a fan who knows nothing about Transformers other than the first film. That was the point I was trying to make.