I'm conflicted on the timeline thing.
Realistically, Trek obviously can't exactly be our future, because they've already had events in their past that didn't occur in our timeline, and while it could be argued that those were ultimately insignificant events, they are still divergence points. As such, moving things like the Eugenics Wars around in time just to keep up the idea of 'Trek could still be our future!' feels rather like wishful thinking to me. Plus I wouldn't mind if we managed not to have Eugenics Wars and a nuclear holocaust.
On the other hand, from a creative standpoint, there's something a little appealing to me in seeing how TPTB try to keep Trek as a viable future regardless of the low probability. Moving the EW feels a bit contrived, but if you want to entertain the idea of Trek's future as our own, then I feel their hands were tied (though I also liked the idea of the EW being a somewhat covert series of events, as Greg Cox speculated). Again, though, regardless of when the nuclear holocaust is moved to, we're still taking about a nuclear holocaust.
It would be nice to think that Sanctuary Districts are a thing that will never come to pass, but if they're a necessary step in Trek's history, then what does it mean if they don't happen? And...sadly, yes, there are some arguments that can be made that to some degree they've already happened, but I don't want to get into that.
