You'd rather have the cliched hero dies to save the world ending? That wasn't what the game was about. Humanity was lost. Finding a cure wouldn't save it. The best example I can point to is the scene with the giraffes. Nature is moving on. Life is moving on. The world hadn't ended, only humanity had. Saving what was left of humanity wasn't worth losing one more innocent girl. But the greatness of the ending is that it makes you think. Joel's decision isn't black and white at all. It stimulates discussion, it's ambiguous and allows for multiple interpretations. That's what is so great about it.

That ending was not bull****. Tell me that if you were in Joel's position, with everything you've seen, everything you've experienced, you wouldn't do the exact same thing. Joel got his humanity back, while the human race had lost it's. The ending does not drop the game from a 9 to an 8.