Forgive me if this has been done to death here, I’m relatively new to this sub. I personally always felt it was more poetically beautiful for Bojack to die. The tragic (anti)hero meeting his end after a chaotic life of destruction to himself and everyone around him. I don’t hate the ending we have, but I always felt there was a certain beauty and closure that felt right
one of the biggest recurring themes in the show is consequences. no matter how many perfect endings the show could have, theres always what happens after it. the view from halfway down can be seen as a last episode if you want it to be, it is the ending of bojacks story, but the last episode, nice while it lasted, is the consequences of that end. dianes feelings after that message, his repercussions for the b & e, etc. bojack cant truly be sorry for his actions until he faces what hes done, which he cant do if he just up and dies one day