I am still on the side that it really needs to be more about it should be about how Single Player and Multiplayer are almost entirely standalone. They might have a few cross unlocks like skins but otherwise they are just completely separate games, in the Mass Effect 3 case it is literal, the multiplayer was originally a whole other game done by a separate team and it just got merged together.
I can also see a trope for single player series getting multiplayer in a future installment, 3rd entry seems very common.
The multiplayer mode playing differently from the single-player is totally separate from quality; there could easily be games where the multiplayer isn't very much like the single-player but they're both done well. Similarly, the "standalone" aspect- i.e. multiplayer not giving rewards that are usable in single-player and vice-versa, is yet another issue.
Clock is set.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Clock is up with no progress; closing this.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
There is nothing subjective about gameplay differences between single player and multi-player, so I don't see why Word of God is needed. The whole "It feels tacked on" is a side-effect, not the trope itself.