Another possibility is that all 3 games were originally independent of each other, but they liked the name Isola so much, they used it more than once. And they already had the graphics for the villagers so why not use that again, as well.
But the games are played by the same people so much that they'll find a way to tie them all together in the future.
Just guessing!

If they did write each game with a master plan to tie them all together, that would be a very long term plan from the very inception of the games!