In this case, everybody
KNOWS FROM THE VERY BEGINNING they'll die (as it is
STATED OUTRIGHT 
, but hopes they may survive somehow. Same medal, other side.
But you don't get the point. The audience doesn't have to leave
happy, but they have the right to leave
sure what the hell happened! In the end, all loose strings must be pulled and the story concluded. The series DID it, with everything, except the triangle: Grace died, Howard Glass died. Grace died. Sheryl lived, Alto lived. Michel died. Klan lived.
THAT'S what normal ending means, and it wouldn't be less normal if Sheryl died (I wrote about it earlier). More tragic, but just as normal.
But the movie has NO CONCLUSION! We don't know what happens to Alto, don't know what happens to Sheryl. We aren't even sure what happened to Brera. And, the living room elephant, we don't know what happeden to MACROSS GALAXY and what it will do. Nothing is resolved, everything is dangling. This usually only happengin a sequel hook (like, say, Episode 24 of the series) and never in the end that is worth its name. Bu putting this in the end, Kawamori basically broke everything - like a cook that can make most delicious meals but feels compelled to add a
opiece of shit to each. And this cannot be resolved by us writing something...
Well, this won't help, because the problem
IS WHAT KAWAMORI CANONIFIES.
See, IF he had stated "Series is the highest canon, what really happened. Everything else is just in-universe reimagining." - like
most productions do ("Primary canon is main canon"), everbody would be happy. Or if he had stated "Movie is just as canon as series, but other stuff (like 'Kiss In the Galaxy' manga and this fighter spec) are canon too", everbody would be also happy. But what DOES he do? He promotes movies - the one source with
most ending uncertainities and unresolved doubts - as equal canon to series (and implicitly as
higher canon than series: it came late and other materials are centered around it, rather than series), while simultaneously giving many almost-clear-but-never-clear-enough hints about how the story ended (see interview - couldn't he just say whether Sheryl awoke or not?
),
AND decanonifying everything that would give us answer (like this fighter spec and aforementioned manga, which I recall he declared lower than movies).
And since he is doing that repeatedly, people get mad and want to yell at him:
"Stop this bloody game of unclear hints! Tell us how the story ended already! Or, if you cannot do that, at least stand back and don't decanonify (= declare nonexistent) those sources who do!" THAT'S what is so EVIL about his ending: he produces movie that, according to all dramatic laws is unfinished, doesn't finishes it himself in his interviews and prevents everybody else from finishing it by putting those non-canon disclaimers in their works. He is like somebody who builds a pretty and strong castle but never builds one of the walls, even though all the plans for it are there, AND uses explosives of "non-canon" to blast everything other people try to build to finish the wall.
And that's why it doesn't matter how many endings WE create (FFNet has quite a lot). As long as Kawamiri stands guard and never allows any decisive info to become canon, the story is unfinished and thus butchered. And this AFTER it was basically finished in the series. With
almost any western productiom, I'm sure executives would pick an ending (a REAL ending I mean) to be canon, but...
Btw, does ANYBODY has confirmed info on how that novel ended yet?