I'm not personally a huge fan of tragedies so while I enjoyed Oshi no Ko and I think it's overall good, the ending still hurts. Which is the point

This story is a tragedy, and this is the tragedy at the heart of the story, and that's kind of always been the point and where the series has been building up to

I don't honestly get all of the vitriol, but I do suspect that since tragedies are less common in modern stories and a lot of Anime fans trend younger, media literacy may be an issue as well

But yeah this shit was telegraphed from like chapter 11

I enjoyed the ride, the ending fit. I'd have loved a happier ending where things work out of course because I ended up caring about the lives and the characters, but that's the point of a tragedy - things don't always work out. And in the end, as the final chapter pretty much explicitly says, life goes on

You carry the loss and the pain and you move forward. And I do think that's a story worth telling, especially right now

I don't have a stake in this race but I think "I think that people who didn't like this ending were young idiots who don't understand how stories work" is a pretty condescending take

I haven't heard anyone say it should have been a happy ending

like it's fine to like a controversial ending but maybe don't insult the intelligence of everyone who didn't like it

That's not exactly what I was going with, more I believe a certain level of excess in the backlash can be attributed to this factor, but if that's how it comes across then so be it, my apologies