LOST Producers switched plans after Season 1 by Vincent Madison

After a lot of thinking about the end of LOST, and how the story unfolded over six years, I am more convinced that sometime quite early on – likely at the end of Season One, the producers changed their original plan.

What if the original concept of LOST WAS in fact for the people on 815 to die in the crash or shortly after, and while the ending was conceived at the beginning of the show, the ALT was never part of the original plan.

Originally, Jack opens his eye and from there on, as per “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, he starts his trip to move on. The end would have been Jack lying in the exact same spot and closing his eye, having completed his journey.
BUT – TPTB realized that people were already talking purgatory and that they would feel ripped off that the island adventures were not ‘real’, so they came up with a plan ‘B’ – a plan that would preserve the end, would preserve the core message of the show, yet keep us in the dark.
It explains some of the odd things in Season 1 that seemed to change focus in later seasons, and the introduction of characters that made things real. Henry Gale/Ben was supposed to be a 3 episode guest role, yet he became a major character – but did not go into the church at the end.
Even all of the tailies are gone except Bernard.
I think that is why Darlton are maintaining radio silence. I really believe that is what happened, and although I think the original idea would have worked, I am happy with this one, as it emphasized and brought us much closer to real characters and relationships as opposed to being solely Jack’s story.