I'm reminded of this Neil Gaiman quote. "All Bette's stories have happy endings. That's because she knows when to stop. She's realized the real problem with stories -- if you keep them going long enough, they always end in death."
In any case, I think part of the point is that James Bond is someone who was destined to never have a normal life and settle down with a family. This idea has been explored in the past as well.
The basic idea that any time James Bond comes even close to having a normal life with a family, something tragic will happen to stop it, is present in that film as well. So the callbacks to that film certainly work within the context of this one.
Generally, it's bringing Daniel Craig's whole series full circle. It began with a reboot: Casino Royale had a Bond beginning his career in the post-9/11 era, with the Cold War long behind us. The series continued by giving us a new version of Blofeld, and ended the series in such a way that it seems unlikely that "James Bond will return" unless there's another reboot.
I was confused when Judi Dench's M carried over to the Craig reboot, but I didn't mind too much as she was one of my favorite parts of the Brosnan films. I just had to keep in mind that while she was M, that in the universe Casino Royale is set, she became M at an earlier point in Bond's career than in the Brosnan films.