Gotta have to repeat myself here.
But those of you who got too seriously hit by .35's end, might take comfort in, that "she"'s not really gone, as far as i see it.
I rather think she even got released of some real unnecessary burdon of what she did wrong (pre game), or couldn't change to begin with.
If i think about "Rascal does not dream of bunny girl senpai" (Anime), one event inside it, had way more impact on me than what happened to Maya, while both are very similar.
The difference here might very well be, that we don't know how Maya's time in the circles (pre game) even was.
Just some shreds of information, we don't even know how valid they are.
What would matter most to the audience, is what we know what happened since game start.
But how much is that? Maya was always very secretive ingame.
As i see it the only real loss was her interactions with Akira. The "Love Story".
As soon as Akira gives her the same green scarf again, we just might be right back on track.