The ending only affects the replayability of the game imo. Though I do agree that it sucks that all your choices were meaningless in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't until the last episode that that was apparant for me. Maybe I chose different decisions which made it less obvious but by the time I was positive that my decisions don't really matter, I was too invested in the story to be bothered by it.
Either way the realization didn't detract from the first playthrough at all. It just made me unwilling to replay the game which originally I was very excited to do to see all the different outcomes I thought would be possible.
This was clearly meant to just be an interactive story. And unlike most other ones, it actually had a very good story. The main gameplay was making those tough decisions. Obviously if you convinced yourself immedietly that none of those decisions will matter, you won't be enjoying the game as much as someone who is more cautious about his approach.
Season 2 might end up being disappointing though, since we will immediately not be too worried about those "hard decisions." So hopefully they switch it up and actually give us alternate endings.
