I've numbered the 3 points I want to make, as I have no idea how to multi quote.
1) Not every story has a happy ending, it's a bit of a trope for RPGs to have happy endings, you level up, take on the big bad boss and ride off into the sunset. Cyberpunk has never been that type of RPG, much like it's fantasy cousin, Shadowrun. The Corps have massive amounts of resources and can make anyone disappear if they become too much trouble. They don't fear the law because they own law enforcement. For a similar theme, look at John Wick, four movies and he got what he wanted, but died in the process.
2) Maybe it should be possible, but at what cost? Do you focus on saving your life, or on spending your last days with someone you fell in love with? As the story shows, you can't have both. You can leave with your love and die months later, or you can save your life but lose them in the process. Having both just hits that generic fantasy trope that doesn't fit the genre. I think CDPR made the right choice with their options. But on that subject, why get involved at all when you know you're going to die soon? In the hope that it'll all work out in the end? In Night City? Really?
3) I think they acted normally. I'm not sure how many you can call, but in my playthrough I had Panam, Judy and Kerry. Kerry was in Europe, playing live shows and was distracted. Judy also travelled and got married. Panam didn't want to know. All interactions made sense. Each one only knew V for a short time, they're not going to fall to their knees and cry because you returned to them. Kerry had continued his music career. Judy was always quick to switch partners so being married makes sense. And Panam was a selfish narcissist, so blocking you makes sense there too. In game terms, I met them all about a third of the way into the game, and when I finished the iguana had recently hatched which takes 2 months in-game time. So they knew V for about a month and a bit. It's long enough to make a friendship, not long enough to be heartbroken if they stop calling.
I don't know how to multi quote either, so this works for me.
1. I did explicitly spell out a way to have the Tower ending be a "bittersweet" ending vs. a purely happy one and how they went above and beyond bittersweet to dictate a shitty ending by breaking established characters.
But, realistically, there's no rule saying that Cyberpunk CAN'T have a happy ending as at least ONE of the options. The Witcher universe is well established as a crapsack world and there are ways to get one. Heck, even some of the characters in Cyberpunk2077 have objectively happy endings. (For example, if you're playing a male V, Judy leaves Night City finds a fresh start and a new girlfriend and objectively gets one of those "ride off into the sunset sort of endings.")
I'm not as familiar with Cyberpunk as others, but multiple posters in multiple threads have named similar examples from established canon that happy endings aren't impossible to get.
2. The story only "shows" this by breaking the characters in the Tower ending. For example, if you're in a relationship with Panam you have saved the entire Aldecado clan. They still
exist because of you. In another ending, they're willing to storm Arasaka Tower for you. That's how dedicated and grateful they are. That is how they are WRITTEN in the main game.
So to have Panam completely unwilling to even return your calls, even after you've been in a coma, is dictating a worse ending by breaking the Panam character. It is railroading and not taking your choices into account up until that point in the story.
Panam in base game: "You want me to sacrifice my clan in a raid on Arasaka because you think it will save you? Sure, we're family and we got your back always. We won't leave you hanging after everything you have done for us."
Panam in PL: "You were in a coma for 2 years? FUCK YOU, YOU PIECE OF SHIT. NEVER CONTACT ME OR MY CLAN EVER AGAIN!"
This is the ultimate rebuttal to anyone who claims that Panam is just a selfish narcissist. In the base game, she's willing to sacrifice everything to try and help you. And in the expansion, she won't even return your phone call after you explain you've been in a coma? Nah, bro. That's just shit tier writing to railroad the plot along. These are two completely different characters.
Put more bluntly: people aren't mad JUST because they can't have an option for a halfway decent ending (including a whole lot of people such as myself where this is my very first exposure to the genre) but they're mad because the writing
makes zero sense here! The answer to your question of "why get involved at all when you know you're going to die soon? In the hope that it'll all work out in the end? In Night City? Really?" is that a lot of people kinda naively assumed that wasn't written in stone tablets. That our choices actually weren't utterly meaningless and we weren't doomed no matter what we do to just choosing between the specific type of crap. "Hello sir, would you like to eat cat shit or dog shit today? We also have bird shit if you'd like to try something a little different."
If everything is going to be total shit with no way of changing it, a better question is "Why even bother playing at all?" By making all the endings dictate total suckiness regardless of what you do, it makes everything you do as a player playing the game meaningless. As you put it, why bother?
3. It may have made sense in your playthrough under the decisions that you have made, but it makes zero sense in a lot of playthroughs for a lot of other people who did a lot more for the characters in question.
Simple length of time is not the be-all, end-all on the impact people have in someone's lives. Take River for example. Sure, you've hardly known him all that long......when you go out of your way to save his nephews life and possibly prevent his sister from committing suicide. This is largely true for many of the characters in the game.
They may not have known you long, but you're largely responsible for saving their lives, saving their family's lives, saving their happiness, or their careers or MULTIPLE of the above.
