I can’t see how we are not at the beginning of end stage capitalism one way or another. I don’t know what it will look like, but either a lot of it is going to come crumbling down, or the mega corporations are going to get even bigger and somehow control even more.
Absolutely agree with your broader point, but I always thought the expression meant “this is the inevitable societal structure that capitalists have worked to achieve,” not “this is the termination point.”
The people who use the term are often pretty heavy on the “Capitalism falls because of its own contradictions” line of thinking, which is a touch too 19th century materialist for a 21st century analysis.