It was always about how he met the kids mom and just because they had the ending pre recorded instead of making a good directory decision they kept it knowing damn well they had went to far with each of the characters to have them going back to each other in the end. All I liked about the ending was the Barney speech scene. The rest was just like tf. You cant expect people to like an ending when the plot itself was leading us to believe that the Ted was going to lead us to meeting the mother and having a satisfying ending that has the kids in it. I mean at the end of the day why even introduce the Mother b.
The plot never actually indicated that though, the title and your presumptions indicated that Ted would have a long life with his kids mother, you weren't the only one, I like most, expected the show to end with the reveal of the mom but once we got that early in Season 9 it should have been clear to people that the story he was telling the kids wasn't focusing on meeting their mom(this is something that can only really be seen in hindsight after you have all the information).
The show had shown us that Ted always gets a bad break even in love(Stella,Victoria,Robin) and your own point proves the original intent behind the story. They had that ending ready for the day the studio said this is the final season, this is a play they've been sitting on since early on. If the show had intended Ted's wife to still be alive then why was her voice or back of her head never once shown/used in the talking scenes? Clear answer in hindsight is because she wasn't there. The clues were left throughout the show but none of us could have picked them up before knowing to look for them.
I still don't understand what you're so upset about over it. We got the mother, we got closure, we heard the whole story and then some, Ted ends the series happy. In what way besides it's not what you wanted is that a bad story? And for the record your view of a "good directory decision" is going with the most linear and expected story available? Ok. You don't have to like it but disliking a well crafted and presented piece simply because you would have done it differently or wanted a different result is just goofy. That'd be like saying
Romeo and Juliet was bad simply because you didn't expect Juliet to fake her death, you'd have rather seen her flat out poison herself. The work is still done well you just don't like it and there is a difference.