Wow, this post really got away from me! Haha I posted this topic and went on vacation for a week at so far at Disney World (no Xenos spotted yet) and cruelly timed my vacation for when Romulus started filming so I can't be glued to the internet for any tasty morels.
I am aware, as it was pointed out, thatnthe original source I linked wasn't the outlet that BROKE the story and cited it as "joining the prequels", I apologize for not properly looking into that.
But as it has been pointed out by others making the "Prey" comparison:
I have long-thought since this project was fast-tracked by Disney that it was going to do two thinks very intentionally:
-Act as a 'reset' by giving audiences a stand-alone story to reenergize the brand which had been given a rough go of things since Covenant didn't exactly line Fox's bank
-Act as a "well maybe..." optional door for Ridley who Disney inherited from the merger and would probably love to brag about bringing him back for one "major" Alien movie, as this and the series are being guided by his influence at least enough that his name has been floated around with it.
I anticipate that Romulus will have some connective tissue to Covenant and the prequels, enough so that long-time fans can have something to appreciate and enough that new fans can go "ohhh, I should watch ____", better buy the new Disney box set.
Also, with the Marvel comics (and 20th Studio / Disney novels) playing with Prequel-adjacent things such as the black goo and name-drops of David / Walter / The Prometheus etc I think it's safe to assume that The Mouse is attempting to really give everything a sense of consistency.