thoughts on the last episode of lost?

I finished the series and most of the issues i have with it are from
the final episode. now, my reaction to the ending was ok, I thought
that it was half-lame. it was cool how jack died saving the day and
everyone else got away on the plane- but then there was nothing after
that, wtf? I also think that jack didn't really need to die in the
first place either. I mean, Desmond was already down there and he has
his super-magnetism-survival-power, so why couldnt he put the rock
back? I also absolutely love when Ben pushed Hurley out of the way of
that tree. I feel like that was his turning point in the show from a
bad guy to a good guy. I don't understand why that didn't kill him,
though. I mean, they just lifted the tree and he was fine. In the
past, they had killed way better liked characters mid-season, and this
was the last episode of the entire show, I feel like that would have
been a really great heroic way for Ben to die. And he didn't really do
anything else for the rest of the episode. i don't know, I feel like
Ben saving Hurley would have been a bigger deal if Ben had died in the
process.
I thought that that alternate timeline that started after that
hydrogen bomb explosion was going to mean something in the end. I bet
the writers created that alternate timeline where the plane lands
safely as a kind of safety net, so that they could kill off all the
characters in the real world and have them all safe and sound and
friendly and alive in the alternate timeline. But while the real
characters were busy giving the audiance a cool, satisfying ending,
the alternate characters were remembering each other from the island
while they were in regular society, just to find out that they were
all dead and in some kind of neverland purgatory. I can't reall y find
a purpose for having that alternate timeline, unless any of the
intelligent people from yahooanswers have anything to say about it.