You've very helpfully put your finger on exactly what holds me back. If I found myself believing in a lost cause, I couldn't bear to go on. I am too close to despair as it is, so I will spare myself the small indulgence of certainty.
I liked Noah Caldwell Gervais' take. It has elements that are ill considered, like its endless late game treadmill, but the basic thing that it was trying to do was fun as hell.
Why has it become normal to beg the question