The original ending was exactly the same....except at the end when you see the Crains chilling on Luke's anniversary of being clean....The Red Room window is in the back ground. Because that was the clue (that nobody noticed, not until the last ep) that all those random rooms (Theo's dance room, Steve's game room, Olivia's reading room, etc.) all took place in The Red Room. The rooms looked different but the same window was there.
So the season was supposed to end with them still trapped in The Red Room. Which makes all the sappy stuff ok because it was intended to fool you....but at the last minute the creator was like "nah, it's too dark and depressing" so he just took the window out, but left the happy stuff in there. Which by itself, obviously doesn't fit the rest of the series.
Regardless, dope season over all and it's pretty much guaranteed there's gonna be a season 2 at some point. Apparently without the Crains....which is dumb to me but

whatever. If he's smart he'll bring a couple of them in (Theo is an obvious choice, since she's psychic) and then maybe in a later season he can get back into what happened to them.