Just registered on the site to also voice my discontent with Karlach's ending and the whole ending of the game in general.
The whole ending sequences are very abrupt, it is weird how Larian didn't put effort into them, i honestly would have preferred comprehensive ending scenes and sequences over the variations we got in the main quest plot, did anyone really cared that much for the bigger reveals at the end with the Emperor and such?
Maybe its just me, but i started kinda to lose interest in the main plot during ACT 3, Larian said they dislike doing "high fantasy/high level" stuff, but it is hard to not think they already did that with the whole Spelljammer-styled plot of the game.
Here i think is where BG1/2's more open plot style works much better.
For the people that are personally sad with the ending with Karlach, not sure if you have seen the ending where Tav goes with Karlach to to Avernus, while that one isn't a "happy ever after" ending (nobody but Shadowheart got something even close to that), it is quite touching and has a uplifting spin on it, specially if pick the option where you ask her if she prefers going back with you or dying on Faerun and shes all for living with you in Avernus.
The utter lack of follow-through on that is what REALLY sucks tho. I was fully expecting a "And in Avernus, Tav & Karlach continued their adventures together, trying to find a solution to her problem" scene, but nope... it just abruptly ends your already very short and lacking ending scene.
Yeah, I believe the abruptness of the ending, combined with a lack of CRPG epilogue type outro really harms what the game could've been, that cherry on top it needed to show us how we affected the wider world through our journey and interactions. The ending you refer to would be so much more satisfying if as you suggest, we got some insight into how things are going, rather than a single line, then an abrupt cut to black. Agreed, for sure.
