8 Reasons Why Secret Empire Didn't Work
2. The Win Wasn't Earned
How do you kill a good ending and strong message? Throw in the deus ex machina!
As mentioned previously, Kobik the Cosmic Cube ultimately saved the day, and did so in the comic equivalent of a click of her fingers.
She created a duplicate of Steve Rogers based on her memories of him before she altered his history (which I still find troubling, as they spent about five minutes together before she altered him), let him have a good beatdown on his evil doppelganger, and then did a wax on, wax off and made it so Hydra was no longer in charge, Hydra Cap's changes to history were erased, and things were back to normal (though she left a great deal of the destruction caused by her initial manipulations around, so thanks for that half-job Kobik).
It was an ending that we all saw coming, it was an ending that brought the whole sprawling event over in seconds, and no one really had to fight for it. It just happened.
She even sent the heroes away for a split second into weird past and future adventures (which absolutely did happen yet absolutely did not, so thanks for that confusion too, Marvel) between panels, in order to explain Marvel's tangentially linked event of one-shots, Generations.
None of it felt earned. The heroes didn't triumph over adversity. Instead, a magic pixie kid with god-powers sorted it all out for them, and left the audience wanting and wondering what the hell this was all for anyway.