Ok let me see if I get you right: Because you can switch up the setting but keep the plot and characters and get a story with the same themes and feel, then setting is less important?
Let's go back a bit to what Temp was talking about. Stories have and I quote, "Theme, style, plot, character, and setting".
If you keep the theme, then the theme will be the same. This is horribly tautological, yes, but I kinda wanna point out that theme is not something you
get from the story, it's something you
put into the story. Same with style, which you prolly conflated with theme.
And the story itself isn't the same. It changed due to the new setting.
So your argument doesn't hold water.
But nothing on stage should be there for the sake of being there. If a character brings up something about the history or a character talks about how "downtown isn't the same anymore" it better matter to the over all plot. Nothing in a story should be there for the sake of having it.
Actually I missed this the first time.
If somebody's talking about how "downtown isn't the same anymore" it's
probably trying to sell the idea that downtown has changed (omg nowai) and he's not happy about it. He may feel alienated, or perhaps it's a story about life and change, or one of those little details to mark the passage of time. Note how that isn't directly relevant to the plot, but it's not gratuitous at all.