It ended three years ago and since then they’ve been totally open about making it up as they went along. It’s a perfectly good way to write a TV show. Yes, some percentage of your audience will be anally obsessed nerds who want it all to be real, but anyone who enjoys watching an unfolding drama will not care at all. Making it up as you go along is an art form in itself. George Lucas sent them a letter about it.
Really, any idiot can think of the exact ending first and work backwards methodically. Making it seem like you did that (when in reality you are working around the availability of recurring cast members) is much harder.
