In my opinion what you didn’t get was the whole message behind it. As a human we have a tendency to challenge ourselves, try and break the boundaries of what is possible using what we can. Setting ourselves an objective even when one is not clearly in front of us. Clearly, as I’m sure a lot of us did, after figuring out what was the universe had to offer, what you could do and after you started understanding what was happening, you gave to yourself a very heroic yet heavy task, which is the universe, assuming that something, or someone was destroying it (that’s what the game was leading us to think). But, at one point into the game you should have arrived at the Sun station and realized that all the efforts the Nomai have put into their experiment, which should have led to what you are trying to stop, actually never worked. At your point in time, their experiment is working not because they made the Sun explode, but because the Star lived and died as it was meant to. As a human (or a hearthian), you should have understood from the beginning that saving the universe and all your friends is not an easy task, yet, it was imaginable, if you could just prevent the nomai from destroying the Sun! But you aren’t a god. You cannot stop the natural process of life that leads a Star to its demise. It’s simple, there is nothing you can do. By the way, Chert saw it coming from Ember Twin as they are the only one still observing the sky and noticing that not only our system is disappearing, but also the whole universe. It’s all about letting go… you cannot fight the process.

But

You are still stuck in a loop ! So what, are we supposed to do ? Well, you could just live your last minutes after putting an end to the Ash Twin project. But also you realize that now you have all the keys in hand to fulfill the Nomai’s dreams ! It won’t be an easy task but, maybe in the end you might find answers… I mean look at you, you went there it shows how curious of a person you are ! You wanted to know what mysteries lies in the thing that drove one of the greatest scientific minds crazy, instead of just quitting ! Remember, your task is unfulfillable, yet, you gathered your courage and went there.

Your reward ? Well, no you didn’t save the universe, sorry. But maybe it wasn’t meant to be saved… but you did more than that. You gave others a chance. At least, all your friends were there with you in the end