Well, you can see his thought processes, now that you've finished the game, if you go to the page where you downloaded the patch. I'm not going to link directly to it, but if you scroll down on that page, it includes a link to the site walkthru, an interview, among other things. If you have the time (and you do need to clear a moment, it's not a quick interview), read through that to get some insight.
Nevertheless, I admit that I completely agree. Heck, I was probably the same, but probably less upset. It took me awhile to swallow the ending before I could actually believe it happened. I'm on the same boat of also thinking it was a cop out. And we're not the only ones, however, most people would say it's poetic or some such. Ehhhh I dunno about all that. What I think shocked me most of all was that this was the plan all along. Heck, in fact Itoi was actually going to be meaner about it. A lot of people had the idea that
possibly, the original N64 incarnarnation would've showed the new world at the end, and that they just couldn't do it here because of space limitations (and believe me, this game IS the product of space limitations and not deadlines, as he and other staffers mentioned there were lots of things they couldn't add or had to remove, especially material that would make you more familiar with Claus, much like the old N64 videos show). However, once fans translated an old spaceworld interview (or something), turns out it was his plan even back then. Of course, he always said that in this game, he wanted to do mean, unpleasant things and sort of betray players this time around. Over the years, apparently he's become a nice guy, as the newest interview would tell you. So the whole final battle and such is different, more heartfelt, and the ending gives you vague closure.
Actually, just do a search on Mother 3 hidden stuff on google, and topics should appear on left out material. Most controversal being this gem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubVnmeTRqhg&feature=related
Which, although there have been clearer versions since this first debuted, this gives you a look at all the sequences in the same video (though it's debatable what order they're really in, if it's even all connected, and at what point in the game this was actually used). Still, stuff like that obviously means Itoi was planning to mess with your head for real at some point.
I dunno why. No one knows why because we don't have a protoype version or even a N64 prototype, which would probably be closest to the original intent. He wrote most of the story during EB's development, so while both versions have the same idea (N64 and GBA final), I'm pretty sure he spent those 11 years retooling and reevaluating his work, probably changing his outlook on things along the way, I'm sure.
But for the record, he's married with children. If anything in that scenario, his wife left him. It's a pretty funny scenario that WOULD make sense, but I highly doubt it. Especially since the Mr. Saturn font is based off of his daughter's handwriting (at the time of Mother 2, she's got to be old enough to write, now). He seems like a family man.
I also like that spoiled kid analogy, because it actually sounds just LIKE Porky. It's not amusing anymore, so destroy it! Didn't they do the same thing in... well, nevermind, I better not say. that's a spoiler of another game.
Well, fortunately M3 only influenced me by graphical style, more or less. But I did find it interesting how many unintentional connections the mother series had to the whole Poke Island thing. Up to Poke Legends being the third and most serious of the three, and even having some connections regarding the near end of things. I would be more specific but I don't like giving stuff away, despite that I wrote it before, because I doubt people remember a lot of the stuff I write (especially sense there's so much of it), and therefore I can get away with it. Heck, that was at a time where no one knew how Mother 3 was gonna go at all. I even think that's when everyone knew it to be a cancelled dead project. So in a way, it frightens and saddens me because now I'll look like the copycat. =E
But if it wasn't for M3, I wouldn't bother remaking this game, and everyone would still be asking me "where's Poke Tales" and such. Even though I've made it clear I'm not going to start people off in the second part of a series, so without a first part, you get nothing. That's another reason I made this. The third and most important is because
I really like it! Trust me, it's hard for me to do things if I don't have any will to do it, but it's hard to stop me from doing anything if I absolutely enjoy it. The best quality products of mine come from the things I enjoy most, and that's a big reason why my site and content is very much "my enjoyment first". It sounds selfish put that way, but actually, it's more like "if I don't enjoy what I'm doing, everyone else is going to suffer from a poor product as well". And with the sort of satisfaction I get just from making scenary for this game, you can bet there's gonna be a labor of love in the game. As I even stated, even if I'm the only one who ever plays it, it will still be great, because it'll be a project I enjoyed an put a lot of work into.
It's just unfortunate that sometimes junk that's popular appeals to the masses more than well worked out things that are more obscure (and I'm using personal experience, here), but what are you gonna do? Never stopped me from doing what I love. So far, nothing has (of course, money and the urgency for it has never been thrown into that equation yet).
I guess that turned into a bit of an aside about how I do things, but just to be sure, I do like to do things for others to enjoy, but there has to be some heart in it on my part, otherwise it'll always be a lesser product, if ever made at all.
Anyway, that's... it I guess. Oh, and by the by, the ending to this game will be pretty much the same as EBs with the free exploration, and then some. It won't be a cop out at all. In fact, it'll be more than the all the games (although I suppose 1 and 2's put together would = this game's ending).