It does establish these things, but there would have been innumerable better ways to do so, rather than in a way that essentially removes any effect on the characters themselves. It affect the viewer, certainly.

I have always been taught, and generally agreed with the exception off exceptional circumstances that 'it was all a dream' is a plot device that should be rarely, if ever, used. Simply going through the arc but having the characters remember the experience would have been a much better way to go about it.

The characters were beautifully-written, I agree; perhaps it's the literature courses I've taken, but I could not help but equate the characters with what the represented every time I thought of them. And the world itself, though captivating and intriguing in its own way, I found impossible to go anywhere with, because it is intended to exist symbolically and not as reality.