Do you like the ending to Citizen Kane? (Spoilers)

To me the story is the story. It can’t be any different. He alienated everyone and had no friends. Your version does give a nice little twist. I suppose they could have had him playing in the snow with a friend and they both had Rosebud sleds.
I did have one small problem that bugged me. I want to know what kind of paint they used to label the sled. Supposedly it lasted for 70(?) years! And this was before the days of epoxy and polyurethane! That’s the kind of paint I want for my house.

It worked for me when i saw it. The sled was a symbol of his lost childhood and the brother who died if I remember it correctly. I think your idea would make it too simplistic. (And a few years ago I was at San Simeon which is a pretty wild place.)

I think it’s good as-is.

In part, it’s an excuse/occasion to go through the autobiographical story that is the film. It’s set up as being mysterious and important, but finding out the answer, turns out not to be the point, and that’s part of the point.

I took the story in part as a remarkable person who lost track of his own humanity and self, and remembers part of it too late as he is passing out of life. As such, I think it’s quite effective and works on a few symbolic levels.