if you think this hastily slapped together horseshit is the final scene the creator intended you're a fool
the whole build up was that shinji was a miserable coward who could not live in the world through sisyphuses absurdism and that he was always seeking the final escape from samsara
the show despite being littered with western iconography was written by a japanese guy who would have most likely wanted the ending theme to be in tune with eastern philosophies of buddhism and moksha, in the east the escape from reincarnation and suffering is not seen as a bad thing like it is in the west no clue why the creators would be so against that ending to the point they killed what was left of their budget to make the guy rewrite a hastily made shitty forced positivity message that glorifies life in samsara
https://youtu.be/Bs8U6I-Z7Zo