So how did the fight scene even work? Did the girls just drop into random versions of themselves through fragments and started immediately fighting with Satoko always winning? Is it some metaphorical witch shit and in reality they are just slapping each other in the real world? What's even the point of fighting each other with the "kill loopers" sword since Rika will either die and get released or Satoko dies and Rika can continue in another world with a sane Satoko?
It's probably just meant to show the rules of the game falling apart as Satoko and Rika rapidly become less and less human, so while it starts with them dying in each world, it eventually escalates to them moving between fragments after merely getting hit, and by the end they just jump randomly without cause.
You could even tie it into the part of Minagoroshi that implies that Rika was on the verge of breaking apart and wouldn't be able to even live normally in the loops any more, though that's probably putting more thought into it than any of the writers did.
Given the kanji means "cycles", it stands to reason it makes much more sense as a title than "graduating" did. Like legit, what even was so "graduating" about this season?
It's Ryukishi graduating from the idea that stories need to be coherent. Why bother writing a focused, tight stories with a central theme when you can just slap things together and call it a day?
I really don't have issue with the basic concept of Sotsugyou, and if Ryukishi wants to write a story about Satoko and Rika losing their humanity because Satoko doesn't want to study and Rika doesn't want to learn to ride a unicycle, that's fine, even if it's tonally out of place for Higurashi, but he really shouldn't have been so incredibly
dishonest about it.
The only arcs that actually matter are Nekodamashi, Satokowashi, parts of Tatariakashi, and Kagurashi, and the other arcs could be discarded and you really wouldn't lose anything of importance. The rest of the club, and especially Keiichi were hyped up as being important, but nothing interesting is done with their characters and they're completely irrelevant to the main conflict.
Sure, the original shifted genres, too, and a good chunk of the main cast kinda sucked in Matsuribayashi, but at least all the arcs were still critical in building up towards the finale. If Keiichi hadn't shown Rika and Hanyuu that it was possible to change fate, none of that could've happened. If the show made it clear early on that it was a story centred on Rika and Satoko, and the rest of the group would be relegated to a supporting role at most, it would be a lot less upsetting, and definitely would've been less of a mess. It could've actually focused on how much Rika wants Satoko to be with her, and why, instead of only having a handful of lines alluding towards it, with it only coming to the forefront in the penultimate episode. That's something you really want to build up to more.
Seriously, they should understand that a story needs focus. Choose what you actually want your story to be, don't spend weeks showing a pointless mystery twice, instead of focusing on the actual plot. It's just tedious and boring to watch, and that's the greatest sin a story could commit.
