Obviously big spoilers up ahead.
Even if I only understand half of your post:
Reason 5: I don't agree with you here. While you can save and see the differences of ME 1 / 2's endings, they are much more visible and existent than in 3.
- ME 1: Save the council or concentrate on Sovereign? Choosing the Council improves humanity's political image as an aggressor, while the other option improves humanity's military prowess relative to the other races. Choose the power-hungry Udina or the reasonable, wise Anderson?
- ME 2: Travel right through the Omega 4 relay and save your crew or watch Kelly being reduced to sludge-Kelly? Go through the effort of preparing your suicide mission or watch your team mates die? Make the right calls during the mission or watch your mates die?
- Decisions were made with a sense of gravity for the situation. In ME 3 however: Kill TIM or reload. Choose a unique color for your explosion. Watch how your squad mates from Earth emerge from the Normandy, together with Joker, whose every bone should be broken.
Reason 4: Yes, probably the weakest link in the article. The Reapers focus exclusively on races having achieved space flight. Why this is done in contrast to eradicating
all organic life has been elaborated enough and the author leaves it out. Bad for him and his article.
Reason 3:
- Conventional FTL travel requires fuel. Considering the Reapers like to destroy infrastructure and a fleet that was previously sustained by the whole galaxy, rather than a single, scorched planet, viable conventional travel and avoidance of interracial conflicts seem impossible.
- Yes, I agree that the light wave does not necessarily need to wipe out the Normandy like with the Alpha Relay, maybe it was mainly a signal rather than a blastwave and the Normandy got caught up in it, because it was in a FTL jump.
- Since Joker as a character is written as one of the oldest and most loyal acquaintances of Shepard, I would have expected him to stay. He basically has two options: His commander fails, which likely means the Reapers win. Escaping would be useless. Or he could have faith in his commander's success, like he always had, and stay during the battle and give the Reapers the best fight the Normandy can put up. That would be the Joker I know.
Reason 2: Conceptionally, you are right. But the Mass Effect series also puts a lot of emphasis on free will and the right to find your own way. By forcing the melding of organic and synthetic life, everyone is robbed of that decision. This is very bitter, if you are able to deliver a truce between the Geth and the Quarians only to realize, that the Guardian doesn't even mention it in his ongoing rambling about synthetics necessarily wiping out organics. Because everyone is robbed of that decision, at least Paragon Shepard's previous courses of action are completely defied. This part in the article is extremely well written and should receive the most attention from my point of view.
Reason 1: Well, being caught giving false promises is always bad, but should not be the number one reason for sympathizing with customer disappointment. Those are made by a lot and broken by a lot, so in the end, this doesn't really differ a lot from other companies, only our expectations were way higher. I also think, feeling entitled is always a difficult thing. I would be happy with a non-cliché ending, if it would give a feeling of closure.