Yes, it was a good decision to add more footage to the original release. Yes, there were some poor plot decisions made; a resolution that poorly prepared for the several violations of the themes and established lore of the series it made. And some poor directorial decisions that made it even more annoying than it was already.
But you know, there's two things that they could have done that wouldn't have added much more effort, would not have changed the way the end unfolds, but would have felt vastly more satisfying.
First and simplest. The majority of the truly plot-critical choices, particularly in the rest of Mass Effect 3, require either Paragon/Renegade options (unlocked via in-game reputation earned through play), or a Paragon/Renegade interrupt (sort of like a Quick-Time Event but unlike most such, they actually work).
(There are two Renegade Interrupts that are so damned satisfying even the most die-hard Paragon Shepard player will take them. Head-butting a Krogan is one...and you know damn well what the other is if you've played through Mass Effect 3.)
As the game stands now; assuming you have a high enough Readiness value (more on that in a moment), the Catalyst explains it had a system (the Reapers) which worked fine for it for cycle after cycle but events of this cycle have proven it is no longer a viable solution. So it offers three, albeit equally unpalatable, options. The way the dialog and even the setting frames these choices, they are there from the start of the conversation. All you are able to do from here until the end of the game is chose one. No other action matters.
Here's how it would work in a more Mass Effect style:
Shepard arrives at the Citadel/Crucible interface and engages the Catalyst in conversation. The Catalyst admits in the course of this conversation the Reaper strategy is no longer viable. Shepard urges it to consider new options. If Shepard's Reputation is high enough and/or if certain things had been done prior in the game; saving the Geth, say, or reversing the genophage, or even doing the Legion loyalty mission back in Mass Effect 2, then better options are unlocked in the typical Paragon/Renegade special dialog options.
And if you take the third option, that can be a Renegade (or Paragon?) Interrupt.
At the end of it you still end up with some tough choices that may feel like pyrrhic victories. The point of this change is you feel like you earned them. And by approaching them through truly interactive dialog, instead of via the SpaceChild nattering on like it ate a freshman philosophy class and hadn't digested properly.
See, this is a key part of every other interaction in Mass Effect as well; Shepard is given a situation with two equally bleak outcomes but is able through sheer strength of what he is come up with a better option. Dozens of times he's talked down a Mexican Standoff instead of letting it turn into a blood bath. This should feel no different.
Yes; I understand the writers were trying to make a point that sometimes there is no great solution. Sometimes even Kirk has to face up to a Kobyashi Maru that he can't cheat out a win on. But throwing it at the player with no preparation is just shitty writing. Give Shepard the wriggle room to properly explore just how bad the options are and chose to make that sacrifice. Don't just force him to chose which garbage hole to throw the universe in after spending hundreds of hours trying to save it. Be tough but make it feel fair.
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Okay, so here's the second thing they could have done. Takes a wee bit more time to do. First let me point out that all of the scenes of the final confrontation between the allied fleets and the Reapers around Earth, from arrival to the docking of the Crucible, is about a minute of non-interactive cut scene.
So let's not even think about the pipe dream of getting the make the kinds of choices you made during the Suicide Mission of Mass Effect 2, where the person you assigned to each task or team had a dynamic effect on how that played out (and could cost you not just that person but others of your friends as well). Take that off the table.
Let's just look at the various ship models appearing, the cockpit scenes that are shown, the role-call that Joker gives from the bridge of the Normandy, and the close-up engagements that may or may not be shown in the game as shipped...err, as belatedly patched. Now change what is shown depending on half dozen variables. This is actually less effort than it looks like, because if your readiness is low you get creamed anyhow; the scenes collapse to being basically the same set of Reapers tearing the shit out of the Alliance core and the Crucible.
But as you get into the higher readiness, which also fairly well maps to specific in-game decisions, you'd get; a scene where a Quarrian fighter pilot has eye drones on his tail...and they get dropped by Geth fighters. Or a Reaper beam is about to take out the Destiny Ascendant...and an Elcor heavy freighter sacrifices itself to block the shot. Or a Reaper is suddenly swarmed by Leviathan uncloaking around it.
All of these would be goddamn incredible payoff for your work earlier in the game. They would be cheer out loud moments. And entirely in keeping with the rest of the game. Take, oh, say, how Counselor Udina's attempted coup plays out in Mass Effect 3. If Shepard had met and recruited the dying assassin Thane Krios back in Mass Effect 2, Thane pops up out of nowhere to give an epic takedown to the insufferable hitman Kai Leng. This kind of payoff is constant, throughout the games, from the tense meeting with the Virmire survivor while Shepard is working with Cerberus in the second game (a meeting even more complicated if Shepard had romanced him or her), to Jack showing up as a teacher to young biotics (and struggling to keep her potty mouth under control!) Even minor side characters have moments. This is what makes those choices worth making, and makes the world feel alive.
Look, fans have done re-cuts, using assets from elsewhere in the series. It isn't that hard. And, hey; the Destiny Ascendent shows up in the final battle of Mass Effect 3 under the right conditionals, that being that you saved the Council back in Mass Effect 1! So put a couple of other clips in there that get trigged depending on what you did so all of that work gathering War Assets doesn't end up with a single number and a pre-rendered fight scene.
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