I agree. And I will concede that both of the endings were the best part of the story; but if there IS more story to come, the Shang ending is going to be the one they run with and end the game on.
Liu going back to train the original Lao means that he in all likelihood defeats Goro in the Ninth Tournament, negating the original events and providing the clean reset. But that's as final an ending as you can get, so I doubt it's going to be where they stop if there's more to come.
Going the other way adds up. MK started with Shang as the end-all-be-all bad guy before Shao Kahn was introduced, so it should end with him as the final big bad. Giving him the Thanos treatment with the crown puts him in the Onaga/Blaze end of the road tier. And with Earthrealm, Outworld, the Netherrealm, and all of their representatives being as fleshed out and conquered as possible, that means that you can go full crazy with Chaosrealm, Seido/Orderrealm, and Edenia, where the Pyramid Of Argus can still rise somewhere in this time-fractured universe.
Geras is still in Chaosrealm, and will almost certainly factor in to how whoever's left to fight will be going about their plans, mad as all fuck because his master is gone.
Johnny and Cassie are canonical descendants of Seido, which is the source of the power both of them used to beat Shinnok, and is almost definitely why they were kept alive, so that gives Hotaru and the Seidan Guardsmen incentive to cooperate.
Finally, if all things began in Edenia with Argus and Delia, setting it all in motion with Blaze, Taven, Daegon and the Pyramid, that's still the only place the whole thing can end.
Plus, look at that last big leak and who it told us were going to be the among the last DLC: Ashrah, Quan Chi, Havik, Daegon, and Kai.
That's the Chaosrealm king we've been waiting for for YEARS; the Son Of Argus and founder of the Red Dragon who, in his head, is destined to be Ruler of All; the last living White Lotus in now-conquered Earthrealm with no Liu or Lao left standing; the Oni Demoness who was saved by a magic Edenian sword and likely used it to escape the now-conquered Netherrealm; and the Peter Baelish sorcerer who set all these insane events in motion, who is probably hiding somewhere in Outworld trying to raise Onaga and his army. Every angle and realm is represented, and they all have three brand new realms to work in.
Going the Empire Strikes Back route makes as much sense as sense can be made out of all of this.
