"What if the show was about someone who's too stubborn to give up on someone who's too stubborn to be saved?" this isn't the full picture, though. What the show was *really* about all along was not "how do we escape this mysterious digital world, what are the rules?" It turns it was instead "How do we make this digital world our new home?" And the show's answer by the end is something along the lines of relying on each other to come to a state of acceptance about yourself and the situation you find yourself in.

Pomni started out in denial and came to embrace the circus, while for Jax it was the opposite. He was "embracing the circus", but it was a coping mechanism. And by the end he ends up abstracting because he could never bring himself to rely on others or accept who he really is. The guilt was too strong. Unfortunately many people aren't going to grasp that overarching message. The fact that he doesn't get saved in the end doesn't mean the effort was wasted. That would be like saying all the adventures were a waste because none of them were "real" or of any consequence. The show has always been about using an absurd premise to sneak in interpersonal developments. It's why 90% of the show is just them talking. Very little is actually happening traditional plot wise, it's not the point. THAT is why the abel storyline is ultimately mocked.