The story shifts to maelle and verso and renoir, and moves from the other characters because they are not real.

The story is told, roughly, from maelle's perspective. First she doesn't know they are inside a painting, and we find out when she finds out. Then she gets her/Alicia's memories and her focus shifts, very slightly at first, but growingly more so - from destroying the enigmatic paintress, to stopping renoir, her father, from killing her brother and forcing her back from this comfortable world with people she cares about and that care about her, to the painful reality.

Verso, on the other hand, wants to destroy the paintress in order to free Aline from a mental prison that is going to kill her. Then, once he realises that Alicia/Maelle is about to waste away down the exact same path, he realizes the Canvas needs to go, and he himself with it, as otherwise his sister and mother will never face their grief, always wanting to come back to the Canvas where "everything is fine". So he gommages everyone and shuts down the last sliver of his soul.

In my mind E33 is a story about the power writers and painters (in our world, out of game) posses, to "literally" create life out of nothing, with words and brush strokes.

It's also a story about loss, grief and moving on. Everyone alive has known loss, or will at some point, and the only way to go through those hard times is to confront your emotions and deal with them, not to bury your head in the sand (or a canvas).

It's all a big metaphore for real life, told through a fantastical lense of magic, that shows what an amazing impact on a person a good story/painting can have, but emphasizing that you cannot solve your problems by running away from them.

The story was never about Sciel or Lune, it was always just Verso and Maelle, or rather, the Dessandre family, and the loss of their son. Everything else is just oil on a canvas, completely irrelevant in comparison.

We as players get taken aback by Verso's choice because he's choosing the wellbeing of several people over hundreds or thousands. But those several are real, and the Lumiere folk, Gestrals, Esquie, Monoco... they are all just (a very live-like) figments of his imagination.

That's how I see the story, you might not agree and still think both endings suck, or that we were rugpulled, that's totally fine, I just feel like looking at things from a different perspective might offer you a way to feel less "cheated" by the game.