Not sure what you mean there. The only one in the series that gets close to determination is the first one, and even that one implies the future is changeable despite being in a stable time loop.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles is the furthest away from determinism, not T2.
Haven’t seen all of them but three is purely “do what you want, shit will happen anyway” as well. The one where the terminator doesn’t need power anymore to function and a villain who’s power are conviently flexible depending on what the story needed.
I didn’t hate it but for me personally it was enough to lose all interest in the whole franchise. The whole terminator universe is incoherent while taking itself quite seriously - and I mean Doctor Who levels here, without just going “timey winey” with it.
I hope for the fans of the franchise that it’ll work out, personally I’ll stay… apathetic, if that’s the right word.
T3 respects that T2 did change the future. Judgement Day’s date moves and Skynet completely changes form. “Judgment Day is inevitable” refers to a general concept of a technological singularity where eventually some sort of tech will become self aware and decide to destroy humanity. But T3 does not assume all events are fixed and unchangeable. We later see different dates and forms of Skynet in The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Genisys, and Dark Fate.
“There is no fate but what we make” is Sarah’s mantra in T2. But she doesn’t change everything: she didn’t stop anything in the time loop from T1 and she didn’t change John’s fate in the future. John’s fate doesn’t change until the Sarah Connor Chronicles, Genisys, and Dark Fate, each of which gives him different futures. Really, the biggest thing Sarah and John do is continuously push the singularity date back further.
