Thoughts on the crucible as a plot device? (ME3 spoilers)

I wanna hear everyone's thoughts on this. What do you guys think about the crucible? Like, do you think bioware could have done better with giving the galaxy a means to stop the reapers? Or was the concept good, but the execution poor? Or was it well done? etc etc

Personally I think that in itself, the Crucible wasn't a completely bad idea, though I was disappointed in its execution. I mean, right at the start of the game, Liara just happens to stumble upon a superweapon that can destroy the reapers.

For one thing, they just blatantly state that they happened across an anti reaper superweapon. No buildup or foreshadowing. That stood out to me even on my first playthrough. I felt that they could have done much better than this.

Another thing is the fact that the construction and deployment of the crucible goes without a hitch. Besides the fact that the reapers seem to have no idea that this is going on, this just screams last minute plot device. It would be far more interesting and engaging if we could visit the crucible itself, perhaps as a second hub world (which I feel was much needed) where we could observe our war assets actively preparing and improving it, such as the cerberus scientists, and the rachni.

Another idea that I would like is a mission or series of missions that revolve around protecting the crucible from hostile forces. Perhaps protecting intel that could jeapordize the project, or preventing hostile forces from taking control, something like that.

So overall, I thought it was a decent concept with poor execution. What are your thoughts?