u/montagdude87

Warning: spoilers

My wife says I'll get downvoted to hell for this, and she's probably right, but here is my reasoning. It is fairly simple:

• The kids are right when they say the show was barely about their mom. The overarching theme is Ted's love for Robin, not their mother. It would have been weird for the show to end with the Ted and Robin part forever over yet unresolved.
• A "happily ever after" ending would have felt too trite for a show that went deep into the ups and downs and complexities of life. I like that it ended on the note that life can really suck, yet it can also be beautiful and hopeful all at the same.

That's really it, I guess. I can see why people may have felt differently watching it in real time, though. I watched it over a period of months rather than years, so I didn't have as much time invested in waiting for the big reveal at the end. I can see why it would feel like a letdown for all that to happen in the course of a single episode after waiting for so long.