There was an interesting comment in the Mitsubishi press conference (among lots of uninteresting comments). It's that the company is using the term "Evolution" fairly literally. I.e. "Evolution" isn't its own brand, only to be applied to rally-bred saloons, but to any significant shift in the design and ethos of a particular product - in this case SUVs.
Which makes more sense now, since the Pajero Evo was also an "evolved" SUV.
It obviously won't replace the Lancer Evolution series as an object to lust over (at least not for many of us), but viewed as its own thing it seems like less of a blasphemy than it seemed at first.