I prefer an absolute ending that still playing

It depends.

Both the original fallout games were open-ended, FO2 even gave you a "game completion bonus" to make your further adventures easier.

I don't think they they need to stagnate the series rather than advance but this was one feature in which FO was lightyears ahead of its time and to remove it is a step backwards

Yes but if it did really great and everyone loved it then it would have been a continue game ending in Vegas that's all I'm saying.

Fallout 1 didn't let you play after the end. XD

oops you are correct.

FO2 then, the original sandbox game, forget about GTA, black isle invented the thing.

Given that the first game in both series was released in the same year (1997), and that sandbox games have been around since the eighties (Elite being one famous example), to credit Black Isle with invention of the genre is clearly incorrect.

It was somewhat of a joke but honestly if you look at it many of the key defining features of modern sandboxes they were present in FO2, and it was among the first games to define them: Collectables, special encounters as a reward for wandering around aimlessly, the ability to take quests/missions after the main chain is over...

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I suspect that those who love to mod their game to suit themselves tend to prefer the idea of play after the main quest because from their perspective they don't even have the whole game yet. Not only do they not have the DLCs, but they don't yet have the many community created mods that will expand the game in unforeseeable ways, and so it doesn't make sense to end the game before they do.

On the other hand, you have the Fallout fanatics, who think of the official material as some sort of gospel, the integrity of which must be defended. They are the ones who like to dog Fallout 3 as "Oblivion with guns" (which to us Oblivion fans was actually a selling point!) and are reflexively shocked by the idea that everyone else doesn't swoon in wonder at the absolute perfection of Obsidian's original choices and dare to suggest changes.

Personally, I think that if Obsidian was going to include a hard ending, it should have been a part of the final expansion pack. Expansions should allowed continued play beyond the initial game's content rather than be reduced to mere added content for a replay. But, that's not the choice they made, and it's probably not really feasible for play after the main quest to be part of an official DLC given the way they designed the endings. We will have to rely on the modding community to provide these things.

I have little doubt they can do it, too, and do it right.

Obsidian said they were making the game non-continuable at the end before the game was released. We all new this was coming. People really need to stop acting so surprised that this happened.

you don't have to be surprised to be dismayed. For many people this installment of the series was a true worthy successor to FO2, until they left out one of the predecessor's biggest features.

As much as I lvoe FO3 and FO:NV it's agonizing to watch them continually do the shuffle-step, two forward, one back, two forward, one back.

I honestly don't get where people get the idea that an RPG has to have continuous play after you've completed the story and any/all side-quests.
Plus, let's not forget that in the case of New Vegas you're told in-game that you won't be able to go back to any other activities/quests when you start the final section of the main story.

How many RPGs allow you to continue after the main plot has been finished?
Seriously, none of the RPGs I own have anything like that. Once you finish the final quest, that's almost always it. If I missed something, I had to load up a prior save or start anew.

Post limit and then some.

And I will say again, what I have said before... games more commonly tell a story, and have an ending. I just don't get why people get so bothered by the fact that Obsidian's game also has a definitive ending. (Not to mention the fact that this was well publicized before the fact.) I like being able to play some games after the MQ is over, but that is fairly unique to Bethesda and a few others. It really is not the norm. Games tell stories. Stories have an end. Enjoy the game - if it's good enough, you will replay it.