A lot has already been said about season 5 on this sub, the good, the bad, the ugly by a lot of us, myself included.
But something clicked today, so I wanted to share with my fellow fans of the show.
The reason why season 5 felt so hollow and "unstranger things esque" is because it lacked both a mystery/ sci-fi core and an emotional core of the story.
Every season, there are basically 2 stories that go hand in hand, ones a mystery, and the other is character based.
S1, the disappearance of Will is the mystery, while El forming a secure attachment with Mike is the emotional core of the story.
S2, the flaying of Will is the mystery while El is trying to find herself and her way back to Mike, and Hopper forms the emotional core again.
S3, billy getting flayed, and the Russian mall is the mystery while El and Mike realizing what space in a relationship means, and El discovering the joys of girlhood is the emotional storyline in this season.
In S4, Max getting cursed is the mystery plot line while El and Mike battling not only teenage insecurities but also PTSD, in El's case, is what makes the emotional anchor for this season.
In S5, however, you could say there's a mystery storyline with the whole Mr. Whatsit thing (?) , but an emotional beat between Mike and El is missing. Obviously, it's scrapped to favor other characters, but what it does is make the finale void scene a bit hollow. I know a lot of people had criticisms of the acting in this season. However, the only reason that the void scene had any reactions was because of Finn and Millie. We do not see any of the emotional buildup to this scene on the screen. We have to just accept the emotional toll of this writing decision because, well, I guess the brothers thought it was child actors that made stranger things into a phenomenon and not the writing.