Im pretty happy to say that Im in the first group. You know, even though the punch line sucked and was a bad ending to the story, I enjoyed that story so much! That was a REALLY good story, IMO. Thank you OP for sharing that with us, Im gonna share it with all my friends.
For those of you who DONT GET THE ENDING... (Spoilers are in white text below this)
There is a classic saying that goes BETTER LATE THAN NEVER. This story uses a clever mockup of it by switching some words, resulting in BETTER NATE THAN LEVER. This could also refer to the guy being so indesicive about killing Nate. When he finally decided what to do, it was better late than never, better Nate than the lever.