So all my thoughts about the mess that is the Stranger Things finale were fermenting in my brain when suddenly that scene of Hopper explaining compromise to El popped into my head. I don't think it worked how they intended but I'm now wondering if that was what the Duffers where going for.

We all know how intense the Byler vrs Milevan discourse got. To the point where it was clear the two camps had latched onto their specific reading of canon as THE CANON to the exclusion of all other interpretations. If the show had ended with a clear commitment to one side then the other would have been furious to the point of hate mail and death threats. So maybe the Duffers decided to go for a kind of compromise, make both sides halfway happy instead of one clear victory (I'm not saying it worked, I'm just thinking this might have been their intention).

Think about it. They didn't have Milevan kiss until the final episode, left the door open for either ship to be true until the last minute. Then the kiss happens but ultimately Mike & El are separated & he doesn't say I love you back. This could be read as a tragic romance by the Milevean fans, who can go write fanfic about Mike figuring out she's alive and going searching for her and their three waterfall ending. But it also leaves room for the interpretation that Mike was never actually in love with El & is in fact in love with will and just tragecally stuck in the closet. Neither side 'wins' but neither side technically loses either because he doesn't 'end up' with either.

However they are sixteen, none of these characters have 'ended up' with anyone, not even confirmed Lumax, because they haven't ended yet - they've barely begun. There is a lot of space left for fans to go write their own endings. The compromise is that Mike ends the show with no one, but the door is open for him to either go questing for El or go vist Will & escape the closet.

If this is what they were going for I don't think it worked. Maybe if it had been a choise between two straight ships but the fact that one is queer means the hinting for Byler followed by a faluire to pay that off is queerbait, which they are gonna get hated for and will damange the legacy of the show. But maybe they didn't see that coming since they are straight and have stated multiple times they have not themselves engaged in the side of fandom that talks about this stuff.