I've been hesitating whether to reply, but here it goes.

1. I'm not hostile to Deku and Bakugou as characters, but I have criticism of how the story handles them as of late. It's not the same. I think their dynamic was interesting until the apology chapter, but there was nothing truly interesting Hori managed to do with them after that.

2. I really really dislike interacting with the arrogant and entitled shipping fandom and have been making a lot of efforts to mute it / avoid it.

3. Btw, MHA has one MC - it's Deku. Then it has a main cast which prominently includes Bakugou, but also includes many other characters. Fans of those characters have also been given legitimate expectations (like the villains being saved, for exampl) and have every right to criticize the story for not delivering on it.

4. I'm mostly laughing at the "greatest heroes" stuff, because it's not about the "set-up", it's about the delivery. I have a really hard time seeing in what way they earned the greatest hero title.

With Deku, even if he failed his fundamental narrative challenge of saving his villain in a meaningful way, I can kind of stretch myself and see how the final arc brought together people whose lives he touched back in the days when he was a passable MC.

Bakugou though? He was just one of a bunch of people who beat AFO. What makes him "greater" than Jirou who destabilized his quirks, than Tokoyami who smashed his helmet, than Endeavor who actually did kill him and forced him on the rewind, than Hawks, Mt Lady, Inasa, Camie, etc.? Everyone in this final arc faced threats they were too weak to face, yet they did it (Sero, Satou coming in to save Deku against AFO). Every single character pushed way past their limits (even if they didn't get the praise).

Even All Might could only come up with "you are greatest because you saved my life" which feels a bit tone-deaf in a chapter where he also says "oh well as long as he wasn't crying anymore, Tomura's life didn't matter that much".

1. So I'm furious, because I actually like Bakugou's character and care deeply about him and wanted him to be greatest in a satisfying way. But to me, his endgame felt seriously lacking. He's a charismatic character that could have inspired many and he's smart so he could have worked great with others. But instead, he had been once again made a damsel, his team was sacrificed for him and he barely acknowledged that and even this chapter says "yeah, he did all these awesome things, we don't really know how because it was all asspull, but isn't he magnificent?"

So I deeply resent that the final arc made Bakugou look like the creator's pet the fandom always accused him of being. Lots of glaze, but actually very little substance. To me at least it wasn't satisfying.

1. As for Shouto - I honestly don't care about All Might anymore. I've always felt so-so about his character, but I was interested in the "deconstruction". Well, the final arc also destroyed any deconstruction his character may have had, basically validating his reign as the Symbol of Peace and arbiter of Greatest Hero gold stars, as well as Most Important Life To Be Saved (tm).
   

Shouto's arc is about validating and affirming his own reasons for existence and I don't need All Might to tell me that how great he is. I think his actions, as well as the hundreds of lives he saved speak loud enough, and it's not like All Might is the one whose word count on this. I do resent shit like Hori offscreening him in Ch 422 only to offscreen him again for Bakugou in 423, but like I guess in the grand scheme of things, we don't really need a scene to know he'll support his friends to his last breath, because that's like a given for his character.

At this point, all I'm hoping for is that he will get also a narrative reward - even if it's just a hug from his mom, and not have this insane writing at the end destroy his character arc.