It was more bittersweet than anything. Madoka found a way to beat the system. All of those girls who had suffered and would have found themselves causing just as much misery as witches as they had prevented as magical girls, now get a reprieve and get to go on to Magical Girl Valhalla instead. Rather than the good and bad balancing out, Madoka made it so that they can genuinely make the world a better place. Yeah, it's really sad that the two are seperated and Madoka will go unremembered by everyone, but now they can actually win.

She didn't beat anything. There's no evidence that the world has changed for the better at all despite her wish being retroactive all the way back to the dawn of civilization. The universe is the same shithole it was at the start of the series, the only difference apart from the Puellas getting clean deaths is that the only person with the power to change anything is now gone forever.

The Anti-Spiral would have a fucking field day with Godess Madoka.

Mami and Kyouko are still alive, presumably any person who died by a witch has survived. Also Kyubey is now entirely dependent on MG for his energy, so its in his best interests to keep them alive. The world sucks but there is now something to hope to look forward to. Hope was pretty much the theme of the ending, Dream-Mami even outright tells Madoka that she has become their hope.

You'll have to excuse me for thinking that "eventually you die and go to heaven (but only if you wasted your life playing Child Soldier)" doesn't qualify as anything to be hopeful for. And QB has no reason not to keep luring his targets in on false pretenses or taking advantage of emotional weakness like he did with Mami. You may recall T1 Madoka handing over the last 80 years of her life to save a cat?

I'd much rather live in the real world than the Goddess Madoka world, to be sure. But I'd still rather live in that world than the world before Madoka. No, Madoka did not create the ideal world by the sacrifice of her humanity, but she vastly improved it.

The world before Madoka is exactly the same as the world after Madoka for everyone except Puellas on death's door, they're the only ones who benefit from it (however slight the benefit is). The witches have been replaced by demons, so ordinary people are still prey for creatures they have no defense against.

All the MGs made their choice willingly since they are always granted a wish. But thanks to Madoka, it actually means something.

There's a significant difference between fighting to death and ending up becoming the evil you fought and causing more harm, as opposed to fighting to death knowing full well that you are doing good no matter what.

As I said before the major theme of the ending is HOPE, "light at the end of tunnel", "triumph over hardship" and all that jazz. It was as subtle as a brick to the face.

They wouldn't have to die period if she hadn't wasted her wish. A better choice would be, for example, "I wish the Incubators could automatically harvest their energy in a usable form from Puella Magi without them turning into witches." Bam, suddenly no more witch transformations but the Incubators still get their energy. Everyone's happy.

What if turns out like the Matrix?
Become a magical girl! [omitted]and we'll strap you to a machine to harvest energy from you![/omitted]

What's the point? They're already getting the energy they need from the Puellas without that setup. It makes no difference whether they're strapped to a machine or not, they get the same energy either way. It would be inefficient and pointlessly wasteful and therefore not something the Incubators would do.

Uh what? That's exactly what happened. No more witch transformations and MG's get to fight for their wish with no repercussions other than the choice they made to fight. Kyubey gets his energy without directly harming MG's. Everyone's happy (or happier depending on how you think).

Also you can't just cut of the Incubators from humanity, the MG system is pretty much the backbone of all human development and technology. It HAS to exist. So Madoka didn't break it, she changed it. It was pretty much the best compromise.

Only because Madoka effectively mercy kills them when they're about to turn. This makes that unnecessary and massively reduces the price the girls pay for willingly becoming child soldiers (for frequently stupid and/or poorly thought-out reasons).

That's a pretty cynical way to put it. Still, its no different from any real person who makes a sacrifice to make the world a better place. What they do saves lives and they were willing to make that sacrifice. Also, MG have affected the course of history so you can't argue that all of their reasons were poorly though-out.

Well, Madoka is a cynical series. If the "humans are worthless without their not-so-benevolent alien shepherds keeping an eye on them" nonsense didn't clue you into it, the "we are powerless to change anything without divine intervention helping us out" message should have.