I presented you several instances of the writers alluding to plot points earlier than the last four or five episodes. You essentially ignored them. There has been glowy light on the island for a while whether you choose to see it or not. I wish you would see it, but if you're insistent that the writers had no clue, that is fine too.

I don't keep insisting they had the entire story mapped out. I said when they were coming up with season 2, they were also coming up with a lot of the things that would have a huge impact on the show in the future. In fact I very clearly said "I don't think the writers are infallible, and I'm not naive enough to think the writers had everything planned to the detail since day one." But just because we didn't know the source was responsible for the monster doesn't mean the writers didn't either. They are entitled to withhold mysteries. If you don't like the answer, I don't blame you, I was underwhelmed myself. But that doesn't mean they made it up on the fly. Maybe they thought it was really cool 5 seasons ago and couldn't wait to show us.

I think the 20% of it they knew the entire time (not including season 1) was the mythology. The other 80% of it they made up as they went along. I say this because absolutely nothing is stopping them from coming up with the mythology right off the bat. All of the Jacob and four-toed statue (Both first seen/mentioned in season 2) could be hinted at without them giving a payoff seasons down the line. They can write it and get it out of the way and write the show they really want to write, which is the characters, like you said. It's when they get in situations with actors like Eko or Walt, or certain actors do better than they expect that they change the story for them. But when they first came up with the monster or why Walt was special, those are season 1 mysteries that I think they had little idea of where they were going with until later on.

I love Lost's characters too. That is of course the success of the show. I couldn't agree more. The mythology is hollow bullshit in comparison, but I enjoy it. It just doesn't mean anything without the characters associated with it.

I've never cared about the numbers. A set of numbers keeps showing up at different points and times. How could one possibly answer that? If the question is "how did they get there" it still doesn't help explain the times when the numbers were spoken aloud by coincidence. It's something the show and Damon Lindelof (long before the end of the show) has said "just is." If the question is "what is their significance", personally, the candidate explanation is satisfactory for me.