As a theatre owner I saw Wall-E twice and on a 3rd view bought a ticket. Wall-E is radical, they simply did not know what to do with the picture. More importantly: why give "us" a second chance? Had we learned anything? Not while whisking around drinking our french fry beverages as portrayed in the film. My alternative ending would have been that when they arrive at the Axiom that there were no people: we were done. They gather up a bunch of robots and go back to Earth. That's it. Would the Earth miss us? I think every living thing would breathe a sigh of relief.