Here's my take: Whatever playoff format is played, presumably the Board of Governors, and by extension the majority of all 31 teams, will have agreed to it. Therefore, there's no asterisk*.
Do we asterisk the 2012-13 Blackhawks because they played only 71 games total, regular plus post-season? That's 11 fewer games than would be played in a regular season. If hockey is a marathon, the Hawks perhaps ran a half-marathon - an impressive feat, but you could legitimately say it's not the same as playing a full 100+ games that a typical Stanley Cup Champian (sic) team plays.
But no, we don't asterisk it, because in January 2013, the Board of Governors made the rules for the shortened season, set up the regular season game matrix, and pressed start. Those are the new rules, and everyone agreed on it. They're making the best of a really, really crappy situation this year.
That said, I don't want the games to take place if it puts any players or staff (particularly low-wage staff who may feel pressured to work) at any undue risk. That includes making sure players - particularly those from Europe - are appropriately quarantined, which might be a logistical nightmare. I also hear Edmonton is in the running to be a hub, which would make it interesting, given that the US-Canada border is closed to non-essential travel, which IIRC Trudeau has explicitly said includes no hockey travel at this time.
The 24-team solution is probably the fairest solution out there given how the standings lie. It would be great if you had 16 clear-cut teams that are in, and 15 that were out, but we don't have anything near that. If you go East/West 1-8, you'd have a tough time arguing which two of TOR/CBJ (80PT/68GP) or NYI (68/80) gets in. And a literal tie in the West between NSH and VAN. Yes, there are tiebreakers, but with possibly unequal level of difficulty games left to be played, you really should expand it to any team that has a reasonable chance to get in, AND keep it a practical number to make it an "even" match.
Letting 12 teams from each division makes sense, as no sub-70 team has a legit claim that they would have broken into the playoffs in a normal season. If you look at the wild card race, there's no way to predict who'd make it. So you may as well let the teams that have a chance in.
*If the Habs win, there will ALWAYS be an asterisk, because they're slimy and they can only win by cheating.
