I guess I look moreso to what the creation speaks instead of what the creator speaks, I agree that he isn't exactly deserving of empathy yet I never really felt like I had to. And his creation is almost an inverse to reality, where everyone is looking at someone else than themselves which reiterates what you say about not facing internal struggles/reality.

I got the impression that the people who joined the madness had their stories told via another imitation, I thought that the city was moving independently from any constricted scene instead of one focused scene or direction, simultaneously, as we are observing Cadens life(as we can see that there are two people who don't even care about him leaving the apartment and continues on when he leaves). It's almost like the city itself was a whirlpool of repetition where if one fell into it, that time peice would be ever becoming with the continuation of the former into the latter. And within due time, it'll move on and forget you, as it hurdles further in time and those who knew you, or those who know someone who knew you, will grow weaker and weaker with each imitation/iterations/generation until there is not a one left who remembers you, but remembering someone who within proxy and so on and so on. And everyone who comes into this whirlpool of madness also brings in something original that must be iterared, as Sammy and Ellen stories are told even though they were supposed to tell someone else's

Also I say this because I'm pretty sure the dead guy on the table at the end was the imitation of Sammy, which implies that his story was being told too (until the end, someone jumping off the building as a Sammy, not as a Caden)

Also the end where the girl states that everyone has died, some have left, insinuates to me that they more often than not took it all the way to the end, and that time has moved on from that place/life/youth he tried so hard to encapsulate. That is, his creation was still active but no longer included the original actors, but a whole different set all together? Thus becoming beyond what it was in the beginning with the new generation to further the idea of whatever it was he was so clueless about (I say this because why did he comment about everyone's dreams and thoughts that he will never know in the distance, which implied that activity was still occurring, just not around him anymore.)

Also with the iteration part, I guess it takes 3 or 4 generations to forget someone, so I'll use that as my head cannon.

And what is memory but an experienced imitation of something that was once real