And Max supposedly remembers from before the apocalypse. Yet he shouldn't given Hardy's age. The thing to be mindful of is that Fury Road was planned and roughly outlined with Mel still in mind to play it. Obviously it didn't work out that way and Miller decided to say it was a "re-imagining". But even he has flip-flopped on that at points.
I'd have absolutely taken it as that if it weren't for those comics Warner's had DC put out. Which went to great lengths to create that connection between it and Thunderdome.
Again, there is no right or wrong answer. Just depends on how you prefer to enjoy the source material.