I get what you mean. But i dig the ending. The plot seems complicated and detailed like you said and i liked that a lot. But the ending was very human and it made sense which is more important for me. The abstract things are interesting to observe but they never stay with you. It's hard to relate to them. They could have done super complicated ending with multiple meaning, it's seems to be a trend now. But i liked that they choose to give us something simple and relatable.

Maniac belongs to what I call The Prisoner School of storytelling. That is, like the 60s, show, it is often baffling, willfully avoids explanation, and when all is said and done probably doesn't mean much at all. Still, folks will always want to try to make sense of something that is absurd.

Taken at face value, the start is promising: quirky design, gobbledygook dialogue, strange splicing of events, all add up to a fun ride. But the OP is right, it dropped off a cliff in the last 3 or 4 episodes. The conceit of the Ep 9 is a standout for all the wrong reasons. Sure it has moments of laugh out loud humour, but the 'look at us clever guys playing with the medium' tone is pure vanity. Sure we are included in the joke, but it is still disrespectful to an audience to dismiss the audience's investment in a story. It's not subversive. It's not transgressive. It's not challenging. It is time writers got over this sort of thing.