You're right and wrong. I believe its commonly held that most if not all GA Marvel are fictionalised versions of true events which is why Namor shouts out stuff like 'Suffering shad' and calls the enemy 'sappy Jappys' and seems to act after 1941 like he's an American instead of being standoffosh and shouting Imperious Rex a lot.

Actually i see three levels of meta fiction.

level one - True Marvel Events - so for instance events in Invaders are true events, as are retold origins and retold stories.

level two - Comic versions WITHIN the MU. So for instance if a certain Cap tale was retold in a comic, based on events within the 'real' MU, then that comic would not refer to Cap as Steve Rogers because the writers didn't know his secret identity.

level three - The actual or reprinted comics WE read which has secret ids etc

The Angel and other GA heroes exist within the MU and those old comics Rick read were MU comics, fictionalised as much as any about Cap, Namor or the Torch.

So to reiterate - unless specifically stated, all Timely Comic events took place but were as much story retellings as Dime Novels about the Rawhide Kid were fictionalised events of his actual Marvel career.

Certain stories are assumed canon but unconfirmed as are certain characters. Each time a new story regarding old characters and events is published in OUR world, we get a confirmation or a denial. I.E Up to this year the characters in the Twelve were not confirmed as being real figures in the GA of the MU - Assumed, yes. Confirmed, no.

Rockman is now known to be real but from all evidence, the events of his 4 GA adventures were comic embellishments, probably based on something he had said to others and which reached the offices of Timely comics who then produced comic books.