Holy crap I think they just took this as a god damn challenge.

And ed, it's because they billed everything else you decide in the series as building up TO the ending. That is exactly WHY people are so pissed - we understood that you couldn't completely change the content of ME2 and 3 based on the choice at the end of 1. We understood that you couldn't completely change the content of 3 based on 2, as much as I would love to have been able to keep working with TIM and be part of Cerberus. The exchange promised was that the final outcome, if not the content of ME3 itself, WOULD be hugely influenced by decisions like that.