I mean it terms in lore. There's all these famous battles and settings, but people only care about the clan invasion era. Some do like the pre-clan/fed-com civil war era, but I see that as that settings 30k. It's funny that when a game is set before the clan invasion, there's complaints about the clan mechs not being there.
As for trying to kill it. Last I remember was that cringe "Battletech Gothic" kickstarter that was supposedly successful, but I've not heard anything about it since. They recently published Battletech Aces. But don't know much of that other than having single player rules.
And I wouldn't mind trying Alpha Strike. I'd have to get it from Amazon as nowhere sells it here.