Spoilers obvs

Trawling TV tropes and deviantart, there were a couple people saying “why didn’t Madoka wish magical girls never existed or that Kyubey didn’t need to collect energy because it was endless or that kyubey’s race never existed”

and they’re forgetting the part where Kyubey said without the wishes of magical girls humanity would still be living in caves. I think he’s kind of full of shit there, but he did show Madoka that several important historical figures were magical girls and we have no idea what their wishes were- Anne Frank’s wish could have been for WWII to end, or America to enter the war- who has any idea what undoing that would do? By erasing magical girls, Madoka would be changing history in a WAY SHE COULDN’T CONTROL and it could very well have disasterous consequences.

Not only that, she would be denying women all over the world their wishes and power- effectively she would be denying them choice, both good choices and bad choices. It is not Madoka’s agenda to deny these women choice and agency. She wants them to HAVE a choice- to completely know what they’re getting into when they make their wish.

For example, if she erased Kyubey or magical girls, she would basically be murdering Mami, who would just die in a car crash with no other choice- even if her other choice was a bad one. Erasing magical girls would mean Kyousuke would still have his hand messed up and Sayaka would care about that.

And on killing Kyubey, not only would that be genocide (and okay I probably wouldn’t be too fussed about that since it’s KYUBEY, but Madoka would. Madoka is not a malicious person, she would not use her wish to harm an entire race) there is the fact his race is working for what they think is right in staving off the heat death of the universe- Madoka probably doesn’t really care about that, but she wouldn’t want to risk whatever consequences killing off an entire race would have on the universe and the fact these things are doing what they think is for the good of the universe adds to that.

Also, killing Kyubey would not reverse the horrible deaths of Mami and Kyouko, or reverse Sayaka turning into a witch, or solve the problem of Walpurgis night and Madoka turning into a witch (wishing Kyubey never existed would, but that would have the same effect of history as wishing away magical girls). Plus, if Kyubey has a choice granting the wishes (and idk if he does or not) he would definitely say “uh, no” to that one.Wishing in universe had infinite energy has the same consequences of altering history.

So really, Madoka’s wish was not the perfect option, but it was the best option available that wouldn’t very likely completely screw over existence. The most important thing was that she gave herself agency in the wish, making sure that she would have control over what happened in the wish- she was able to control how history was rewritten and make sure Kyubey didn’t implement the wish in a way that screwed over humanity like the other wishes would have gone out of control (and remember, the wish has to be something she can visualize, so it can’t be something broad like “everyone is happy and gets wishes and the universe works perfectly”- that doesn’t give her any control over the wish either. She CAN visualize herself going and erasing witches).

It gives her agency and power, it does not deny the women before her the agency and power they craved but only takes away the part they DIDN’T get a choice about-where their agency was taken away- turning into witches. And yes, it sucks that they still die and have to fight all their lives but again, that is THEIR CHOICE that they are aware of when they make it. And Madoka’s way ensures that they don’t die alone and die in relative peace, which is a hell of a lot more than any of us are guaranteed. And a magical girl can now stave off death for a long time- Sayaka still died because she exhausted her soul gem quickly, and she chose to.

A perfect world doesn’t exist, and people will always die and be caught in tragedy and be caught in an unfair system- but Madoka ensured that all the women in the world had agency in this system, and wouldn’t be tricked or destroyed by it, and would never be alone, supported by other women. That’s really the best you can ask for in an anime that wasn’t exactly idealistic, and I feel it was ultimately a satisfying ending that showed women CAN take control and beat the system and have the option of choice, even if life still sucks.