After years of research work, struggling, waiting, and doubting every life choice I made, it's finally over.
To be honest, the ending felt weird. Right after submitting my thesis I jumped into an industry job, and all of a sudden, my perspective shifted. All those years of hard work in academia suddenly felt... meaningless. I actually stopped caring about the title entirely, which is kind of a strange headspace to be in when you're supposed to prepare for a defense.
Getting a very positive feedback from the reviewers was the one thing that gave me enough confidence boost to revise the thesis and put together a decent final presentation. Somehow, at the defense I managed to impress the committee enough to land a cum laude, which was totally unexpected, but a greatly appreciated "cherry on top" to the whole thing.
I've left academia for good now, but looking back, I don't regret going through it. Not really for the degree in itself, but for the massive amount of experience (technical, but also personal) that I gained along the way.
For anyone still struggling right now: it's worth it, even if the "meaning" of it might change over time.