The latter two are a much more broad and prevalent issue in the gaming industry overall. No need for the whataboutism.

It completely killed any narrative cohesion or pay-off by just ending. I remember thinking “it’s been a really long time… how are they going to wrap this up?”

Turns out the answer is “don’t wrap it up”. It truly makes me not recommend it - though I had other issues with it aside from just that absurd decision. Rewatch the first again, instead.