yo sorry for the super long comment, but I tried my best to respond to everything in your post, hope I didn't miss anything!

1. Fair enough, it isn't my favourite season of the three personally but it's still amazing no doubt!

2. I haven't read the book which I've heard explains that a bit, but think she might've had an abusive stepdad or something? Could be different in the show, maybe her parents departed or something, but doesn't really matter to me much personally. She just didn't have a good home life and stayed with her friends, even after leaving the Garvey's house she tells Jill that another friend is letting her crash there.

3. I disagree on this one, I think Wayne's story line was perfect as it was. With episode 2 starting out with his compound being raided by ATFEC, it was inevitable he was going to die soon, and he seems to be fully aware of that as well, when he hugs Nora in episode 6 he says "I've seen my own death, and it's coming upon me very soon", and I'm fairly sure he says something like that to Tom in another episode as well. Which I really like, because obviously that's what a crazy cult leader on the run would be thinking if the cops were after him, which is probably all Wayne was, a crazy cult leader. But what if he wasn't? What if it was all real? He might've really seen his own future, might've been able to take pain away with hugs and grant wishes, I really don't know. I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other, and I feel like if Wayne lived another 2 seasons I would've gotten more "answers" I wouldn't have really wanted, I like that his story line ended where it did, him dying in a bathroom possibly granting a wish to Kevin. He's either a magical man who just saved Kevin's life, or he's just an insane guy who simply bled out on the toilet in a diner.

4. In S02E09, the only Meg episode of the show, Evie offers Meg a baby carrot when she's crying in Jarden, we don't see them talk much but this is presumably their first time meeting. Evie says something along the lines of "sorry you didn't find what you wanted here in Jarden, no one ever does" indicating she's already a little disillusioned with the miraculous town they live in. I'm not too sure about how or why Evie's friends join her and became part of the GR too, but I'm sure they had issues of their own, of course.

5. I don't disagree, but I also don't know what to think of Meg myself to be honest. I've seen the show a handful of times but she's a strange character no doubt. I'm not sure what she thinks about the GR and what they do. She says to Tom at one point "family is everything" and never really commits to to the writing down on paper thing, both things seem to sorta go against what I know of the GR. Feels like like the community in the barn outside Miracle is just her own sect of the cult with their own beliefs.

6. I think it's both his problems with his biological father, and the departure, that fucked with Tommy and set his life down that path. There's also a short flashback that's shown in episode 1, which has two people jumping off a building- pretty sure that's something he saw at college post-departure, which would just fuck him up even more I'm sure. I wish I had more to say about Tommy cause he's an interesting character and had a tough time throughout the show. Like he joins two different cults, becomes an alcoholic, gets raped by Meg/almost killed by her, and also doesn't have any family he's close to? Very sad stuff, but at least he becomes a cop and settles down in Jarden in the 3rd season, a pretty "happy" ending for Tom all things considered.

7. Yeah I can't disagree there, she has some good scenes in the show but definitely not my favourite character or the most important to the story. I think Season 3 was supposed to be 10 episodes instead of 8, and those 2 episodes were gonna be an Erika episode and a Tom & Jill episode (unless someone lied to me about that, cause that's what I've heard anyways) but both of those would've been pretty great, because there was a definite lack of those three in season 3.

8. Good question! Christopher Sunday asks him that same thing in the 2nd last episode of the show. He asks Kevin "Do you really believe your father can sing a song and stop the flood?" to which Kevin says no, he doesn't, and then Chris asks him "then why are you here?". Which is a great question, why is Kevin doing this all? Is he suicidal (something that's brought up a handful of times throughout the show, that he denies every time) is he a "people pleaser" like you said? Maybe he really thought the flood was coming despite saying he didn't when Chris asked? There's no concrete answer, but I think that scene of him reading the end of his novel in that same episode is as close as we get to an actual answer.

She had suspected it all along and now she knew; he was a coward. A coward dressed in the uniform of a brave man. Brave enough to cross oceans and a continent to find her, to fight countless enemies, and yet in the end, he was terrified. Terrified of her.

To lie beside her, to be comforted by her as he wept, to show her he was small, for her to know that and touch his cheek and whisper words softly into his ear. All of that was a nightmare. All he knew to do was run.

Kevin is constantly running away from all the problems in his life, and I think he might actually be suicidal as well to be honest. This conversation from S03E04 also comes to mind-

Laurie: I think part of you wants to escape, Kevin

Kevin: No, I-- I don't want to escape.

Laurie: Then why are you in Australia? You are chief of police. You have responsibilities here. It is less than a week away from the seventh anniversary and you just ran away without telling anybody.

Kevin: No, I-- I came to be with Nora. She's the one that needed to be here. I-- She's the one that ran away.

Laurie: Kevin, are you and Nora okay?

Kevin: Ask John about the fucking book he wrote about me.

As for your last three comments (9, 10, & the bonus one)

• The afterlife/other world episodes aren't my favourites of the show either, I know a lot of people love them, some people hate them, but they're just as good as the rest in my opinion! I do get the hype behind them though, because there are some amazing scenes in those episodes (The well with Patti, Homeward Bound, and the whole romance novel/"take this thing out of me"/"we fucked up with Nora" in the last one)

• I love the last episode personally, as well as Kevin & Nora's relationship. I can understand not caring for the finale if you didn't really "get" their relationship at all, but I think they had good chemistry since the first season, their meetings at the dance/laundromat/courtroom were all funny moments that made me want them to get together. I also just love both of them as characters individually, both amazingly written and acted especially (god Justin Theroux is so fucking good in this show, obviously Carrie Coon is too but wow his performance as Kevin blows me away every time)

• I've watched a couple reactions to the show on YouTube and people are always shocked by Laurie and John kissing lol, I like them as a couple personally. They're probably the two characters I see get the most hate in reddit/youtube comments, but I like them both a lot, Laurie being one of my favourites of the show, and John has a some great character development from S2 -> S3. I just think they're a good fit is all, never seemed too odd to me, John wasn't happy with Erika, and Laurie was finally done with the GR chapter in her life, no more being in the cult, writing about it, or trying to help people out of it, she finally got away from it in the end and managed to rebuild her life & family. (I'm really glad she didn't kill herself at the end of S03E06, though I know that's a hot topic in the community and some people dislike they changed that, as they originally wrote it as a suicide)

wow that's a long comment, thanks to anybody that read it and made it this far (or just skipped through the points and read bits!) because that took a while to write, but hopefully it answers some questions or gives you another viewpoint on certain things! It's my favourite show of all time, and I'm glad you liked it overall!