NoUserNameHere wrote...
... because after all that 'does this unit have a soul?' talk on Rannoch, it turns out it was them or us all along. Tali's character develoment is moot. Legion's sacrifice was meaningless. I want to ragemurder a kitten.
I actually don't see it this way, and I did pick the Destroy ending. I saw the Reapers as a threat and one that ultimately needed to be destroyed. I also loved that I was presented an option to make peace between the Geth and Quarians earlier in the game. It (and Tuchanka) was probably one of my favourite moments in recent gaming history. Probably since Planescape: Torment (my favourite game all time).
When I reached the conduit, I fully expected to have to sacrifice myself. To be fair, I expected to sacrifice myself at the end of the previous two games too, so to me it's always something that I saw coming. I also had no idea what to expect the Crucible to actually do. Given the talks with Hackett, I felt it was us putting all our eggs in one basket because we only saw one basket to put our eggs into.
So I get to the Catalyst and start talking with him. He presents the ways that the crucible can unleash its power. I'm going into this thinking "Reapers. Must. Die!" But then I'm told that choosing to destroy the Reapers will also destroy the Geth! "Wait... WHAT?! But I don't want to do that!!" I found it very, very similar to Legion's loyalty mission in ME2 (one of my favourite parts of that game). When presented with the Control ending, I was now a bit more considerate of it. When presented with the synthesis ending, I was a bit more considerate of it.
It is
because of the growth of the Geth and Quarians that my "obvious" choice was now not so obvious. I also refused to believe the Catalyst's statements about the inevitability of synthetics and organics to destroy each other. In fact, when Shepard says "Maybe" in response to the Catalyst's claims, it was my exact same thought. I had grown to appreciate the Geth and Quarians because I was able to help resolve the 300 year conflict with them. They were able to move on, which gave me hope that synthetic-organic conflict was not inevitable.
If Legion's sacrifice was meaningless, and Tali's character development irrelevant, I wouldn't have taken the time to think about whether or not I should destroy the reapers. I wouldn't have cared at all. I choked up when Tali told Legion it had a soul, and when Legion said "Keelah Se'lai" to her. It was an amazing scene. I thought it was awesome that the Geth were helping the Quarians adapt and retake Rannoch. Which is what made the destroy option that much more impactful for me. Rather than being a trivial, obvious choice, I hesitated and had an emotional response to the decision.
In the end, I chose the destroy ending. I found it bittersweet because it came at the cost of the Geth, but ultimately freeing the galaxy of the Reapers is something my Shepard felt had to be done. The "maybe" he said rang true for me, and I wanted to give the opportunity for organics to prove the Catalyst wrong in the future. I actually preferred this ending to simply "destroy all reapers." Though I can understand that people would have preferred something more ideal.
NOTE: While my name has BioWare attached to it, I've only ever worked on the DA franchise and actually would close my eyes and go "LALALALALALA" during the ME parts of studio meetings so as to not spoil anything for myself

In other words, I played through the game as a fan of the franchise too

Cheers.
Allan