…Man, I’m not sure what to say after all this, save that this is still my least favorite route of Kanon.
Now, the issue doesn’t lie in the characters so much as it does in the plot. The pacing is all over the place. It starts off with a fine introduction to Mai’s character, which is well-built and develops naturally, while quickly escalating through personal and social issues that grow beyond what Yuuichi has faced thus far. But at a certain point (specifically, when Mai returns to the school after her expulsion) the story begins to decline in pacing to a tolerable yet formulaic slice-of-life that lasts longer than it should. Only when the fight gets personal does the story pick up again, and just when it feels like it could end beautifully, BAM! Exposition dump.
I may have been exaggerating when I called the route a slogfest in the past, but I’m still of the opinion that this route could have used a good deal of trimming and perhaps some editing to make the ride smoother and more involving. For example, it would have helped a great deal if the danger behind the demons Mai fights were greater. There’s not enough at stake in the demon fights, despite there being a good reason for Mai to stay by the school and fight against them. If there’s any positive to these demon fights, though, I will say they got Persona Q’s battle theme stuck in my head. 
Not to say there aren’t good points about the story. Like I said before, Mai, Sayuri and Yuuichi make a great pair of friends. The chemistry between each other is believable, although many of the scenarios make me root more for Sayuri-oriented pairings (yes, even Maiyuri, ironically). The daytime scenes in general are much more enjoyable than the nighttime demon battles, which is kind of sad since that’s a major focus of the route. Makes me a bit glad they kept Maeda out of Rewrite… ._.
It’s also during this route that I’ve come to realize how different Maeda’s writing style is from Hisaya’s. Hisaya’s writing is rather light in substance, yet it hold so much more emotion and character. Not to say that Maeda’s writing doesn’t contain emotion or character, but there’s the occasional feeling of forced emotion and abstract thinking that makes it harder to read. Think of it as the difference between a painting of a building and a blueprint of one. You can adore a painting for being easy to look at and artistically vibrant, but a blueprint places a greater focus on technicals and what it takes to get to the point of looking like what’s in the picture. Not quite as fun to look at, unless you’re an architect, I guess. ;-.-
Nevertheless, I feel that Maeda wanted to focus on the atmosphere of a particular place in this story, fleshing out Yuuichi’s emotions (and therefore our own) through how a place feels in comparison to his mundane reality. This is perhaps the biggest reason the story is able to keep itself from falling flat on its face, and keep its reader invested in what is going on. We are attracted to the mysterious, awe-inspiring feel of a place different from our own, and if I were to think in the perspective of a first-time reader, I would want to know what is going on.
Now…about the ending…
It turns out that Mai has a confusing and vaguely-explained power, which I could describe in two different ways:
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the ability to manifest her own desires into the world through her own emotions and feelings, defying the laws of nature and manipulating the strings of fate to her will, either knowingly or subconsciously; or
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Key Magic.
The route calls it ‘hope’, but I think it’s safe to say that Mai’s power is a form of magic realism akin to many other abilities and realms later explored in other Key works, such as (CLANNAD After Story and Little Busters! Refrain spoilers) Ushio’s ability to send Tomoya back to the past in the Illusionary World or the secret of the world. Now that I think of it, it seems to contain elements of both, sending Yuuichi back to the point where he first met Mai in order to remedy the events of the route, and Mai’s subconscious wish for Yuuichi to return manifesting as demons. It’s also explicitly stated that Mai’s power was also responsible for bringing Yuuichi to Mai the first time they met, and may have factored into his return to the snow-covered town ten (Ten? Not seven?) years later.
In a direct quotation from her route, “What did I actually make of her in the end?” Mai’s route, in my opinion, falls into a similar category as Lucia’s route from Rewrite. Her character is complex and certainly likeable in hindsight, and there are legit good moments in it, like the ballroom scene. But at a certain point its narrative grows less interesting and/or sensical as it progresses, making for a less than satisfying experience. So far, this is the low point of Kanon for me, and I hope it will stay that way.
At least Shiori won’t let me down, right? …Right? 
