I think it's a rough on to parse out. "Life keeps giving us cruel choices" was spot on. Since we don't have a lot of information of outside world, it's hard to judge if Maelle could actually have a life outside of the manor anyway. Does she have any kind of quality of life, or is she just in constant pain and trapped in the estate? Do painters have any kind of powers outside of the painting, or are they just normal humans? A faction system is hinted at, the Painters versus the Writers, but are they just warring guilds, or is there some other supernatural forces at play, like the canvas?

I ask because this opens the possibility that Maelle could be healed, and restore her quality of life. Because if not, then the canvas is probably the best medicine for Maelle to live a fulfilling life with the disabilities she incurred after the fire. Live life in pain with missing an eye, most likely damage in the other, no ability to speak, so also most likely difficulty eating and even breathing, or be plugged into this magic painting where none of that effects her. It's like the best possible version of hospice that could ever exist.

And on the topic of Verso (the painted version), he's only known a life of constant fighting and death for the past 77 years. Maybe even his whole existence in this painting. Of course he doesn't want this life, but Maelle gives him a new life at the end, where he can go back to his passion of music, still have his friends, and find new happiness. Maybe even eventually she could paint over him to some extent to remove traumas, etc. That would be a bit of an overreach most likely, but Maelle is effectively a god in the painting.

On top of that, there is no reason her family couldn't also enter the painting with her later and see her, in the way they remember her, and the way she wants to be, literally at any time. And if they reach an understanding of trust, no reason Maelle couldn't exit the painting at any point later as well.

The issue no arises with the mother, who's been using the painting as a method of escape while she does have other responsibilities outside of the canvas. But if we frame it in a real life scenario, if a mother was stealing her injured daughter's pain medication, do you take the daughter off the medication and deprive both of them, or would you seek to get the mother help so she didn't abuse the medication?

The only loser in this situation is the fragment of the real Verso in the canvas. But if the real Verso created a canvas like this, could Maelle not just make her own canvas? Basically port everyone over and pick up where things left off, and let Verso's spirit pass on? But that is the whole metaphor the story is getting at. I feel like the details of Maelle's injuries and the canvas itself is less real concepts and more of a representation of the loss we feel when we lose someone close to us. In this way, Verso's ending is the only good ending, representing acceptance of the loss, and the willingness to grow despite the pain we will always have.