What I dislike about this thread is that people focus on the ending and how "Karlach deserves" something different. The truth is, Karlach is getting the short end of the stick for most of the game and THAT is what should be addressed.
I mean, Karlach in the story, as a person, definitely does not deserve the situation she is in and it's only natural that we'd want to help her. I'd say that's what people mean. It's hard not to sympathize. She's written that way. Extremely likeable. A compliment to her character, really.
As far as the supposedly intended story of her character goes literary-analysis wise, well, the ending would feel more 'deserved' if her quest was fully done first and foremost, as we've agreed.
Then the two viewpoints get overlaid, because, well, if she doesn't deserve that as a person AND quest-wise isn't given justice either, then surely BOTH of those things should be fixed, right? (I don't fully subscribe to that notion, however much I would love a happier end, but the general thread direction definitely comes from there. As in: if the lacking quest writing feels like an oversight, who's to say that her general ending isn't just a product of that oversight as well?)
And to be completely fair, only the devs know for sure which one it is.
Plus, the whole more recent 'ending she deserves' thing is the result of the unfortunate community update phrasing and like. As I said, as a person in the story she doesn't really deserve what she's getting, and that's the main thought people jump to. Not whether the epic narrative character send-off is suitable for her story-wise.
"A character who was sold into slavery 'deserves' to die or go back to the place of her trauma" isn't the message they indented, but it's one a lot of people read and got understandably pissed.
Miscommunication much.
(P.S. I will say, I personally think that in writing the whole 'The most sunshine character who's suffered some truly horrible shit doesn't have a happy ending because that's poignant or whatever' trope is kind of uninspired by this point, BUT I would definitely not be up in arms about it that much if it felt solid on all accounts. Well, a lie, I probably would still be, but I'd be writing fix-it stories, as I usually do when my favorites suffer unjustly in my opinion, not camping out on the developer's forum)