diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/IPublishedRequest.cs b/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/IPublishedRequest.cs
index f05df351f3..4ffe565489 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/IPublishedRequest.cs
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/IPublishedRequest.cs
@@ -25,13 +25,6 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.Routing
         /// </summary>
         IPublishedContent PublishedContent { get; }
 
-        /// <summary>
-        /// Gets the initial requested content.
-        /// </summary>
-        /// <remarks>The initial requested content is the content that was found by the finders,
-        /// before anything such as 404, redirect... took place.</remarks>
-        IPublishedContent InitialPublishedContent { get; }
-
         /// <summary>
         /// Gets a value indicating whether the current published content has been obtained
         /// from the initial published content following internal redirections exclusively.
diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/IPublishedRequestBuilder.cs b/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/IPublishedRequestBuilder.cs
index fee64fda8d..f94972412f 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/IPublishedRequestBuilder.cs
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/IPublishedRequestBuilder.cs
@@ -28,11 +28,6 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.Routing
         /// </summary>
         CultureInfo Culture { get; }
 
-        /// <summary>
-        /// Gets a value indicating whether the current published content is the initial one.
-        /// </summary>
-        bool IsInitialPublishedContent { get; }
-
         /// <summary>
         /// Gets a value indicating whether the current published content has been obtained
         /// from the initial published content following internal redirections exclusively.
@@ -84,11 +79,6 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.Routing
         /// preserve or reset the template, if any.</remarks>
         IPublishedRequestBuilder SetInternalRedirectPublishedContent(IPublishedContent content);
 
-        /// <summary>
-        /// Indicates that the current PublishedContent is the initial one.
-        /// </summary>
-        IPublishedRequestBuilder SetIsInitialPublishedContent(); // TODO: Required?
-
         /// <summary>
         /// Tries to set the template to use to display the requested content.
         /// </summary>
diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/PublishedRequest.cs b/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/PublishedRequest.cs
index b3aa37d31e..135a756600 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/PublishedRequest.cs
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/PublishedRequest.cs
@@ -76,10 +76,7 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.Routing
         public bool CacheabilityNoCache { get; }
     }
 
-    /// <summary>
-    /// Represents a request for one specified Umbraco IPublishedContent to be rendered
-    /// by one specified template, using one specified Culture and RenderingEngine.
-    /// </summary>
+    // TODO: Kill this, but we need to port all of it's functionality
     public class PublishedRequestOld // : IPublishedRequest
     {
         private readonly IPublishedRouter _publishedRouter;
diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/PublishedRequestBuilder.cs b/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/PublishedRequestBuilder.cs
index 8167e83e6a..6441fcabf7 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/PublishedRequestBuilder.cs
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/PublishedRequestBuilder.cs
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.Routing
         private bool _cacheability;
         private IReadOnlyList<string> _cacheExtensions;
         private IPublishedContent _internalRedirectContent;
-        private bool _isInitContent;
         private string _redirectUrl;
         private HttpStatusCode _responseStatus = HttpStatusCode.NotFound;
         private string _responseDesc;
@@ -41,9 +40,6 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.Routing
         /// <inheritdoc/>
         public ITemplate Template { get; private set; }
 
-        /// <inheritdoc/>
-        public bool IsInitialPublishedContent { get; private set; }
-
         /// <inheritdoc/>
         public bool IsInternalRedirectPublishedContent { get; private set; } // TODO: Not sure what this is yet
 
@@ -124,13 +120,6 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.Routing
             return this;
         }
 
-        /// <inheritdoc/>
-        public IPublishedRequestBuilder SetIsInitialPublishedContent()
-        {
-            _isInitContent = true;
-            return this;
-        }
-
         /// <inheritdoc/>
         public IPublishedRequestBuilder SetPublishedContent(IPublishedContent content)
         {
diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/PublishedRequestExtensions.cs b/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/PublishedRequestExtensions.cs
index f9c9d8b294..b3eb21ed16 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/PublishedRequestExtensions.cs
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/PublishedRequestExtensions.cs
@@ -55,11 +55,6 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.Routing
         /// </summary>
         public static bool IsRedirectPermanent(this IPublishedRequest publishedRequest) => publishedRequest.ResponseStatusCode == (int)HttpStatusCode.Moved;
 
-        /// <summary>
-        /// Gets a value indicating whether the current published content is the initial one.
-        /// </summary>
-        public static bool IsInitialPublishedContent(this IPublishedRequest publishedRequest) => publishedRequest.InitialPublishedContent != null;
-
         /// <summary>
         /// Gets a value indicating whether the content request has a domain.
         /// </summary>
diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/PublishedRouter.cs b/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/PublishedRouter.cs
index a7b20b84ba..7f4bc6f22f 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/PublishedRouter.cs
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Core/Routing/PublishedRouter.cs
@@ -318,13 +318,15 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.Routing
         internal bool FindTemplateRenderingEngineInDirectory(DirectoryInfo directory, string alias, string[] extensions)
         {
             if (directory == null || directory.Exists == false)
+            {
                 return false;
+            }
 
             var pos = alias.IndexOf('/');
             if (pos > 0)
             {
                 // recurse
-                var subdir = directory.GetDirectories(alias.Substring(0, pos)).FirstOrDefault();
+                DirectoryInfo subdir = directory.GetDirectories(alias.Substring(0, pos)).FirstOrDefault();
                 alias = alias.Substring(pos + 1);
                 return subdir != null && FindTemplateRenderingEngineInDirectory(subdir, alias, extensions);
             }
@@ -351,6 +353,8 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.Routing
                 return;
             }
 
+            var foundContentByFinders = request.HasPublishedContent();
+
             // not handling umbracoRedirect here but after LookupDocument2
             // so internal redirect, 404, etc has precedence over redirect
 
@@ -358,7 +362,7 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.Routing
             HandlePublishedContent(request);
 
             // find a template
-            FindTemplate(request);
+            FindTemplate(request, foundContentByFinders);
 
             // handle umbracoRedirect
             FollowExternalRedirect(request);
@@ -375,7 +379,6 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.Routing
             // look for the document
             // the first successful finder, if any, will set this.PublishedContent, and may also set this.Template
             // some finders may implement caching
-
             using (_profilingLogger.DebugDuration<PublishedRouter>(
                 $"{tracePrefix}Begin finders",
                 $"{tracePrefix}End finders"))
@@ -387,10 +390,6 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.Routing
                     return finder.TryFindContent(request);
                 });
             }
-
-            // indicate that the published content (if any) we have at the moment is the
-            // one that was found by the standard finders before anything else took place.
-            request.SetIsInitialPublishedContent();
         }
 
         /// <summary>
@@ -588,7 +587,9 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.Routing
         /// <summary>
         /// Finds a template for the current node, if any.
         /// </summary>
-        private void FindTemplate(IPublishedRequestBuilder request)
+        /// <param name="request">The request builder.</param>
+        /// <param name="contentFoundByFinders">If the content was found by the finders, before anything such as 404, redirect... took place.</param>
+        private void FindTemplate(IPublishedRequestBuilder request, bool contentFoundByFinders)
         {
             // TODO: We've removed the event, might need to re-add?
             // NOTE: at the moment there is only 1 way to find a template, and then ppl must
@@ -604,7 +605,7 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.Routing
             // only if the published content is the initial once, else the alternate template
             // does not apply
             // + optionally, apply the alternate template on internal redirects
-            var useAltTemplate = request.IsInitialPublishedContent
+            var useAltTemplate = contentFoundByFinders
                 || (_webRoutingSettings.InternalRedirectPreservesTemplate && request.IsInternalRedirectPublishedContent);
 
             var altTemplate = useAltTemplate
diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Web.Website/Routing/UmbracoRouteValueTransformer.cs b/src/Umbraco.Web.Website/Routing/UmbracoRouteValueTransformer.cs
index 7b0fed7991..f087a6203e 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Web.Website/Routing/UmbracoRouteValueTransformer.cs
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Web.Website/Routing/UmbracoRouteValueTransformer.cs
@@ -218,15 +218,14 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.Website.Routing
 
             // ok, process
 
-            // note: requestModule.UmbracoRewrite also did some stripping of &umbPage
-            // from the querystring... that was in v3.x to fix some issues with pre-forms
-            // auth. Paul Sterling confirmed in Jan. 2013 that we can get rid of it.
-
             // instantiate, prepare and process the published content request
             // important to use CleanedUmbracoUrl - lowercase path-only version of the current url
             IPublishedRequestBuilder requestBuilder = _publishedRouter.CreateRequest(umbracoContext.CleanedUmbracoUrl);
 
-            // TODO: This is ugly with the re-assignment to umbraco context
+            // TODO: This is ugly with the re-assignment to umbraco context but at least its now
+            // an immutable object. The only way to make this better would be to have a RouteRequest
+            // as part of UmbracoContext but then it will require a PublishedRouter dependency so not sure that's worth it.
+            // Maybe could be a one-time Set method instead?
             publishedRequest = umbracoContext.PublishedRequest = _publishedRouter.RouteRequest(requestBuilder);
 
             return publishedRequest.Success() && publishedRequest.HasPublishedContent();