hmmm... very interesting Arti ji. definitely it is love, passion and dedication that touch the reader in the end but if the ending is left for the reader's imagination, wont we be disappointed if takes a twist we didnt expect?
like i will give you an example. take twilight. i honestly liked the first book. and i read New moon with an open mind too. i raised my eyebrows when Edward left(not to mention over the gross over-reaction of a Zombie named 'Bella' :P) but when Jacob came into the picture... i ACTUALLY started liking the book more. My friends found New moon the worst of the lot cuz their hero Edward had done a vanishing trick :P but to be honest, i liked that book the best.
So it was the passion, the love and the dedication in that book that made me like it. So i thought, i wouldnt matter to me how the ending would be(because it was kinda obvious that Bella would ditch him the character she is :P) but when the dude came back and the other guy was pushed into the friend-zone... i was DISGUSTED. i tried to get along with the parts where Meyer DID touch my heart with the emotions... but i am so sorry to say, the ending ruined it for me. and now i frankly hate that weird series :P :P i mean... the concept of FOREVER doesnt EXIST for God's sake.
So though i agree with you to some extent... i still think ending does matter. because at the end it is whether the guy went hapily forever after with the girl that stays with the reader than what happened in between(i am talking JUST about the love stories. NOT the books of other genre)
to take another example- i am a WORSHIPER of Harry Potter series. i mean honestly i treat that series like my grandparents treat Mahabharata or Ramayana. I loved every single novel, every single LINE, right from the beginning to the end. So though JKR touched my heart so so much with her work... i really think the ending would have mattered to me. i mean, would we have like Deathly hallows, or rather the HP series if HARRY had died and VOLDEMORT won?? :P i think the answer is a no :P :P
though there are some stories which i simply LOVED even though the ending was tragic. i simply LOVED those books :) and the ending DIDNT matter to me. so, at the end, we come back to the story line again i guess :P
interesting thought Arti di :)