A thread of loose ends

[Errorname]

Well…

The Snarl not being the focus of the story doesn't mean it isn't important, in his own words the significance of the Snarl is how it's presence alters the shape of the story and the goals of the characters. That's not at all incompatible with a late game twist about what the Snarl is that opens up a different path to victory.

I'm not saying you said any of that. I'm saying I'm yet to see so how the planet thing could just throw the Four Colour Cooperation Collective in a compelling way. That "solutions" I've seen so far are kinda very horrible is something I brought up to illustrate that point.

Oh, I might see the problem. I don't think Thor's plan is going to fail because he's wrong about the Four Colours thing, I think Thor's plan is going to fail because the state of the world is going to deteriorate to the point where simply patching the existing rifts with more gates will stop being a viable solution. I don't know how that gets solved, but this story consistently pushes the heroes about as close to utter defeat as they can possibly go before they find some way to win/survive, and stopping Xykon before the last rift is destroyed is not as close to utter defeat as this can go.

Dealing with the Snarl Macguffin in a compressed epilogue after the actual main villain is already beaten would not be particularly dramatic, no.

If that was all the resolution the Ark got, if Indiana just beat the bad guys and took the treasure and put it in a warehouse, I would call that not particularly dramatic. However, that scene is preceded by an insanely iconic climax where the Ark plays a pivotal role where the movie pays off all the set up of the Ark's power.

The Ark is technically not even a Macguffin, not in the original definition at least, it's properties aren't irrelevant and you couldn't easily swap it out for something different with no effect on the plot. True Macguffins aren't bad, nothing wrong with watching some fun characters kill each other over a big diamond or something, but it's not what the Ark is and I don't think it's what the Snarl is either.