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I understand some people may prefer not to write happy endings. That is the most common way to end. At the same time however, it's a mistake to think that happy endings are "all alike" or anything. If an author feels that he is able to come closer to the image he wants to convey by having a sad ending, that too is fine. However, yeah I myself don't enjoy that sort of thing and thus rarely even bother to watch/read stories I know end with a downer, especially if it's a complete downer where one of the major characters is just left alone with neither the happiness he sought nor any clearly available alternate happiness.
But I will say, if Shinkai wanted to write a story about dear friends who loved each other like sisters (or brothers, or brother and sister), I have no doubt he would make something beautiful, and I'd have no problem reading it. Heck, if the dear friends are a boy and a girl, why not put the focus on them being very dear friends and leave it at that? The (many) viewers who want romance will see a romance, and those that are still happy with just friends will still love it just as much. But yeah, far as I can tell, stories where a couple works out at the end tends to be most popular on average, followed by bittersweet tragedies where the love is established but tragic events rip them apart like Romeo & Juliet, and the least popular ones are the ones where things just don't work out.
Ultimately, I'd say most people who love any particular creator will have works they love and works they hate, even periods of either. Nothing wrong with that, obviously. There are some Shinkai works I simply don't have any interest in ever watching, and there are others that I could watch over and over. Suzume is definitely in the latter category for me. I hope at the least that when/if Shinkai comes up with a story that he's completely happy with that it's something I still find as moving and beautiful as these last few.
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