You aren't kidding re: trying too hard. It's okay to like happy endings okay?! Plus for the TS trilogy it WOULD have rendered the series void, because TS was constantly a story about working towards a happy ending like the Rolling Stones song. You can't always get what you want, but if you try real hard you'll get what you need. In this case, you might face losing what you thought you needed to be happy, but you and your heart CAN be strong enough to endure it, and love again. Each movie did that, with Woody re:jealousy, in T2 with actively knowing some things won't last forever, and T3 with letting go and actually moving on. It was always about growing up, and killing them all off with Woody only able to be happy in an IMAGINED ending would have been like saying, THERE'S ONLY FEAR AND PAIN IN GROWING UP, YOU WILL NEVER BE AS HAPPY, GIVE UP NOW rather than a message of striving for life in all it's achey forms and phases.

holy tl;dr batman!

I'm trying to think of a show where it was ROCKS FELL, EVERYONE DIED and it was good, but I CAN'T THINK OF A SINGLE ONE?