Just for the record there are alot of things wrong with ME3, it's not just the endings that let ME3 down although the stupid Red, Blue and Green endings completely invaliadet everything that came before ME3 and make sure that Bioware can never build anything after ME3 either ( and Refuse makes Shepard the biggest failure in gaming history who just roles over and admits defeat ).
Having said that, yes the endings could have been worse. I don't particularly like the cenario that you painted with the simulator. I remember pre ME3 when alot of gamers were joking about ME3 ending with Shepard waking up after being knocked unconcious by the Prothean Beacon in ME1, to that would have sucked.
Neizd wrote...
Now:
If only Tali, one of three most loved characters (according to fanbase) didn't recieve a cheap, badly photoshoped 5 minut work instead of a in game model...
If all ME2 squadmates didn't recieve a short end of a stick...
If the fetch quest were more like ME2 where you land and explore/fight/interact with something...
If...a lot of ifs.
Like harbringer says: This is what we face - ME3 was not what a lot of people wanted it to be.
And these are a small example of why ME3 fails.