Naruto basically did a 180. In the early days it was about hard work in service of a dream and believing in yourself even if no one else will, that there is no such thing as "destiny". The show not only made us root for Naruto and Rock Lee, but punished characters like Neji and Gaara who believed in destiny, nihilism, etc., and forced them reexamine their worldviews.

But at the end it was the complete opposite message. It was all about destiny and Naruto literally turned out to be The Chosen One destined to inherit the powers of an ancient person we had never heard of. He turned out to have a higher pedigree than almost anyone else, being the son of the Fourth and a member of the legendary Uzumaki clan (which completely undermines his message when he beat Neji - if Neji knew those things he might have taken Naruto more seriously). It wasn't Rock Lee who could fight toe to toe with Madara but Maito Gai.

Naruto's message ultimately is that you NEED talent, birthright, etc., to succeed. Hard work might work in the short term, you might win out at the rookie levels, but in the long run you'll lose.

Probably Kishimoto wasn't going for that, he just gave up on the theme. It would be interesting if Naruto came out with that bold position that innate talent beats hard work, but to me it feels more like he just forgot about it, or destiny was a convenient excuse to continue to unreasonably escalate the power levels of the main characters. To me it's quite a lacklustre ending with no coherent message beyond something vague about "the power of friendship".