The ending wasn't bad perse, but I'll never watch a Lindelof and Cuse production again, because they included a bunch of Sci-Fi elements and then bait and switched at the end claiming it was a "character drama"

Agreed! I gotta it I'm still a little peeved about the final seasons.

There's been a few instances since and I think it sums up to this flow:

1. New innovative show does some cool stuff, writers are pouring their lives into it

2. Writers get start getting noticed

3. Writers love the attention, start building on initial success, evolving it, more more more until it gets out of control, the audience is buzzing

4. Writers are getting lots of money, are offered new jobs - they can't keep up the current regime

5. Writers wrap up the show to move on to the 'next best thing', and by then there's not enough time/money/rewards to resolve everything in the way it deserves

Why did the man in black go into the hole and turn into a smoke monster, but then Jack falls in and something different happens?

What actually was the island?

Were they all dead to begin with?

How come only a certain direction could get to the island?

Aside from the crashes, what exactly were all the white suits doing on the island?

Why did they go from highly scientific, to essentially cavemen?

That's fair, but the show was relentlessly d as a mystery that would be unraveled,

And every half season there was a new mystery building on the previous mystery, as if it alleant something and was connected.

If it was a character drama why didn't they just do some stuff on an island, ala Home and Away. Why create all these mysteries?