Hmm, I kind of think the opposite as far as the mysticism goes. All a long it has kind of been showing us supernatural things, then giving us a way to believe they are not supernatural, then throwing out the explaination and pushing us back to believeing they are supernatural. I don't think these things are from indecision on the part of the writers, but rather intentional misdirection. I don't know what is so mundane and pedestrian about the others, they are still pretty creepy and we still know relatively little about them. No we know that they are living in Dharma's old barracks, but they are not Dharma. If you remember when young Ben met Richard Alpert in the woods, Richard was dressed very much like the rag wearing version of the others that we saw early on in season two. Not to mention, he had aged very little over a relatively long period of time. Richard and Ethan both tend to appear in the real world from time to time. I still find both the characters of Richard and Ethan still rather creepy and mysterious. Let's also not forget about Jacob and the look on Richard face when he was told that Ben was taking Locke to see him. Also the Clockwork Orangesque brain washing Alex's boyfriend was undergoing at Ben's orders. The others still are not exactly your average group of doctors.

You mentioned that the others were "merely some pathetic leftovers of a corporate-picnic-gone-bad"??? If you remember correctly, the creepy and mysterious others are what made the corporate picnic go bad and were not actually part of it. They were already there before the corporate picnic began. Yes, a few of the Dharma people joined the others or the hostiles, but that is not to make all the others to be thought of as nothing more than left-overs of a band of silly hippy doctors. I am sure the writers are making some things up as they go, and maybe changing a few of their original intentions in favor of things they find more interesting, but I don't think that is going on quite as much as you seem to think.

I think Lost suffers from being a really good show. It doesn't really know its audience, or more accurately, its audience doesn't really know it. You have plenty of fans whose biggest interest is who Kate is going to hook up with and whether or not they will get rescued, people more in it for the drama. Then you have people who are in it for the sci-fi aspect, and others who are in it for the mystery. The whole concept of the show has been interesting to me once I found out what it really was. I mentioned before being bored while my wife watched through season one, but once we hit season two I became the bigger fan. At first it just seemed like a silly drama with some sci-fi characteristics, but it has really turned out to be much more than that. After I began listening to the podcasts and hearing more of the writers and their ideas I stopped worrying about whether or not they would take the show in the right direction or not. I am now certian there is nothing to worry about. There will be mistakes made along the way (Nikki and Paolo not to mention plenty of other aspects of season three), but I feel pretty certian that the worst of the mistakes are at an end and that the writers wont make the mistake of trying to please everybody again, which is what really brought down parts of season three.

By the end of the series all the people who can't wait for secrets to be revealed and are constantly demanding answers, as well as all the ones who are in it solely for the drama, I think are going to be grossly disappointed with the show, simply because it was never for them in the first place, they just didn't know it.