Pretty much. TV series have the option of keeping what's good, throwing out the rest, and rearranging it so it feels more structured. New Adventures kept the best elements of the Jason Todd story without actually ever using Jason Todd. Spectacular Spider-Man was fucking wonderful at going right back to the beginning with the Ditko stuff but making it all fit together so it didn't look like they were just making it up as they went along.
I'm not one to issue a blanket "fuck continuity", as some writers (Busiek, Morrison) do a really wonderful job making it work for them. But it's just one tool in a writer's chest, and there's so damn much of it that no matter what you do you're going to contradict SOMETHING. The other day's conversation about Strange Tales is instructive -- that Wolverine wrestler story was better than any in-continuity Wolverine story I've ever read.