Yes, that was one of the significant things I felt was unresolved too. Besides that, the question of what is the significance of (more narrowly) Rickie's disability and (more broadly) him being the kind of person he is rather than the kind of person Gerald and Stephen are, and various vague ideas about Wiltshire and its meaning. And, yeah: how doomed was Rickie, really?

As for the other thing, it gets a bit more personal than I want to go into here, but basically, when I'm in a bad mood I find happy endings depressing and stories that speak to that sort of bleak sadness comforting, especially when it involves 'representation' and the question of characters being examples of 'people like me' in fiction.