So I don't know about you, but while I enjoyed this season, my reaction to the finale was highly "meh." And yes, I'm aware that John Hodgman has declared war on "meh" but sometimes it just sums things up perfectly. Given that Hosea won the season, I guess they got the best they could out of what they had to work with. I think they overplayed his conflict with Stefan. I think they were going for plucky underdog but what they got was more obsessed stalker. And Stefan I think they wanted us to see as Hung, part 2. Except, c'mon... Hung was a chef de cuisine at Guy Savoy in Vegas, right? Stefan, while talented and the owner of a successful business, is just not at that level. I also think they mishandled the Hosea/Leah pseudo-hookup but w/o that, Leah (who stayed around a surprisingly long time) has no storyline except how to succeed by sucking less than everyone else. But they got lucky that a couple of big personalities (Fabio and Carla) went pretty deep. So they could focus on them more and that got them some good TV.
I gotta say though that, ten or something years into reality television, it surprises me to still be seeing comments like "I can't believe Stefan and Hosea were the final two; they've been sniping at each other all season." No, the reason you saw them sniping at each other all season was because they ended up being the final two. I think it's the basic truth of reality TV and while I'm sure one can enjoy watching the show w/o grasping that, I'm not going to take very seriously the comments of anyone who is missing that point,