I think everyone agrees that "Before Dishonor" was not PAD's strongest work. In fact, it was downright weak. If Janeway had met a similar fate in the Destiny trilogy, there would be far fewer complaints; that would be a worthy storyline to go out on. Much of the discontent arises from the fact that she went out in a relatively weak book that wasn't even under the Voyager banner.
While PAD certainly deserves criticism for the weakness of the book, he should not be blamed for the event in question in general; I believe the decision to take that step was handed down from the editors, or somewhere higher up anyway.
While PAD certainly deserves criticism for the weakness of the book, he should not be blamed for the event in question in general; I believe the decision to take that step was handed down from the editors, or somewhere higher up anyway.