Interestingly, while I understand every one of those complaints, I don't have a problem with any of them.

---SPOILERS---

I think it's VERY clear, by the way, that Head Baltar and Head Six were, in fact, angels, and so was Starbuck, though Starbuck was able to take physical form - much like Six as Shelley Godfrey in "Six Degrees of Separation."

One of the things many have been complaining about is that the explanation for most of the weirdness on the show is simply "It was God." The Opera House? Visions sent by God to influence the people who saw the visions, to guide them in the right direction without directly intervening. "Head" characters, and resurrected Starbuck? Angels sent by God to guide characters in a similar fashion.

I'm honestly surprised by the fact that this explanation doesn't bother me, as I'm an atheist - but I liked it quite a bit. It felt right to me, for the show. And it was an interesting twist on the idea of a deus ex machina ending, which is Latin for "God from the machine" - this time the deus ex machina actually IS God.

And I don't think making us descendants of these characters diminishes our achievements at all. If they'd kept all their technology (agreed that that was a leap of faith, but a necessary one that was dealt with well) and used that to build a new civilization, THEN it would have cheapened our achievements.

Hera is "Mitochondrial Eve" - the link between Neanderthals and modern humans. That's her major significance.

There were still Raptors on Earth - they were used to spread out the people (as you could see with Adama/Roslin). Apparenlty 150,000 years is plenty of time for any trace of them to disappear completely.

--END OF SPOILERS--

I knew as soon as the episode ended that it would be a very polarizing finale, so I can't say that I'm surprised. It's a lot like the Sopranos finale - many hated it, but I loved it. Thankfully, none of the scathing reviews or complaints have swayed my opinion of the finale even a little.

...I still hated the dancing robots.