so instead they just went off the deep end and made completely incomprehensible nonsense with a shoestring budget and became iconic for it

Just look at Space Runaway Ideon’s TV ending if you want the “try to stick the landing with the budget we have left.” It’s mid, and Tomino was lucky to be able to do a double-movie to fix the ending (the second movie is probably one of the best sci fi anime movies).

The TV ending for Evangelion is hands-down one of the best things they did in the franchise.