All things considered, I'm glad that such move resulted in:
- Less than 1 million manga sales in 2019 (to be precise, it sold 600.845 copies for all volumes in the whole year of 2019). As a comparison, the franchise sold ~250million accumulative total between 2000-2015
- Kishimoto's new manga got axed within 5 volumes. He was planning for at least 10.
- No movies since 2015 while every other franchise enjoys growth as anime market is expanding twice the size compared to a decade ago (https://www.animenew...ion-yen/.166579)
- The latest major game they produce (Shinobi Striker) sold 10k in the first week. Storm 3 sold 9 times more in the same timespan.
And many more facts that indicated the move to pivot the story at last minute has killed the franchise financially.
One can't justify an F mark to be seen as good. It is what it is. The fact that such move backfired will ensure that other series should not follow suit.
I'm curious do you think somewhere down the line Naruto might get a reboot? I personality think its better if this franchise is completely buried and forgotten. It should never get a reboot especially if a mediocre author like Kishimoto is involved.