WHY isn't Cloverfield a Godzilla movie?

There's a new trailer up for the supersecret J.J. Abrams project "Cloverfield" that's coming out in January. It's clearly a monster movie of some kind, but who is the kaiju in question? The one thing everyone seems assured of is that it's not Godzilla, which is pretty much confirmed in this latest trailer, unless Godzilla now has the power to infect people with spores that make their chest expand and explode (about halfway through the new trailer, you see a silhouette of this happening).

Why, J.J.? Why didn't you make Cloverfield a Godzilla movie? This sort of take on the the big G would have been fantastic!

I still have hope though that maybe all the spin and misdirection is just to keep the reappearance of the Kaiju King a surprise. Maybe the thing making people explode is what Godzilla is fighting? THAT would be a classic "Godzilla as unintentional hero" film! Come on, look at that picture, that could be his leg!

Anyway, I'll end with this... There's always hope.