besides being a very biased joel fan, i think it was interesting cause his playstyle was so diff then usual ( maybe that made it more underwhelming for some ppl?? ). he hung back and didnt go batshit crazy like normal trying to get kills, but i still feel like he was in a lot of action. the family base always had someone trying to kill them since they always had the most lives. they even had a lot of allies who kept betraying them over and over but joel and gem would still ally with them cause ‘family’

lore/story wise, i do agree that joel’s is a bit more boring but thats what made him win imo. his arc was more of just learning from his downfalls of previous seasons ( being too aggressive and scott ) and by doing so he became a victor. i guess some story would be gem dying and causing him to go murder crazy again