Wow. You've just explained excatly how I felt about this series.
But y'know.. when Light was running at the end, and he saw his younger self, it made me see Light for exactly what he was. A simple boy who wanted to make a difference. That being said, it still doesn't justify what he did. Though, I do think Light really could have changed the world for the better, he just.. went about it a bad way...
I love this. You really got some of the core points. What the writer said that they were thinking to be L's last thoughts were "I wasn't wrong...but I lost." and I think you caught onto that. ^-^
When Light died, I didn't cry for some reason. It just wasn't sad. I guess I was kind of all, "Well, you had to have seen this coming, Light." When L died, I did cry, but I think that's just because I was such an L freak. I didn't like Near for the same reason.