Nomura is trash and can't write a cohesive narrative if his life depended on it. All the stuff they added in the end was the most ham fisted, pointless way of letting the audience know they're gonna change shit big time. FFVII was already bombastic enough with its steampunk setting, ragtag group, cosmic horror, psychological thriller, kaiju battle, space travel, armageddon self. They were on the right track with expanding some of the stuff and doing a deeper dive, but the alternate angle they brought in at the end was absolutely awful and unnecessary. Some people eat up this meta slop, but it's a tired trope that seems to be shoehorned into everything now, whether it actually serves the narrative or not. Final Fantasy VII stands on it's own, and didn't need this garbage. People were sold on an expanded take on a classic and instead they got a weird meta sequel where the developers use Aerith as a mouthpiece to whine about what was expected of them and only wish to be set free. *eyeroll* It's amazing how 95% of this game was doing so well, and then just falls on it's face in the last hour (not to say that there weren't red flags sprinkled throughout). It should have been titled FFVII: You (Cannot) Go Home Again.