I know I'm in the minority on this one, and this is easy for me to say as some kind of ace and non byler shipper, don't shoot, etc. but I actually liked "I had all the answers" and the message about it really just being about Robin / Will themselves, and not waiting for validation in someone else loving you romantically.
my favorite thematic takeaway from st4 was platonic love being as powerful as romantic love, and this is consistent with that message. I like the idea of Mike and Will's friendship being what prevails instead of it having to blossom into romance in order to be valuable or lasting. so I have zero objection to that having been the story they meant to tell all along.
that said, they told it spectacularly poorly.
to execute this to any satisfaction, we needed to see Will voice his feelings significantly earlier, leaving at least a few episodes, but preferably an entire season or two, to see the long term effect this has on Mike's friendship with Will.
we needed to actually see, not just be told for 2 seconds, that their friendship stayed strong, and Mike didn't start acting weird or keeping him at arms' length. some of the famously bylery scenes should have happened after Mike knew Will has/had feelings for him, to show that Mike is still willing to be physically close and emotionally open with him. we needed to see them actually talk one-on-one about stuff besides El or the supernatural plot, confide in each other, and have fun together.
instead we got 1 scene where Mike "yeah dw we're still friends. anyway" and then they never individually interact again.
if romantic byler was endgame, leaving that for the last episode would've been dogshit storytelling. but for platonic byler to have been the end they knew they were building up to for a decade, just for that to only come to some feeble fruition at the very last second (and only because Noah had to beg for it!) is mind-bogglingly bad storytelling.
