Of course the reality of the situation is that HBO didn’t do this, Chase did it. The real sin of HBO in this was they kept writing Chase bigger and bigger checks, causing him to make the show go 3 seasons longer than he intended. If not for those checks you get this ending years ago.
It’s pretty obvious. You have Carmela pimping for Hillary in 2000. The anti-Catholic Church spectra from season one. The whole “poor Vito is gay” story-line.