Before attempting to offer a (possibly partial) answer, let me admit that the question seems to me to have indeed a high degree of subjectivity (e.g., it is not clear why specifically a *six*-episode epilogue is discussed as a possible alternative choice), something that you already seem to recognize ("*this question kind of assumes a particular subjective view*"). Nevertheless, I will try to shed some light in the decisions that led to the finale, quoting from the oral histories included in the relevant chapter of the 2016 book by Mark A. Altman & Edward Gross, [*The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years - From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams*][1].

To start with, and although *Voyager* admittedly had a highly episodic (as opposed to serialized) structure, it seems that this characteristic was somewhat relaxed for the last season; here is executive producer Kenneth Biller, shining also some light into *why* such an episodic structure had been the choice until then in the first place:

> Rick Berman and the studio basically said to me, "Okay, this is the last season and whoever's watching the show in the seventh season are people who are already invested in the show and characters." They allowed me to take a more serialized approach in the final season. So we did storylines [...] And the quest to get home got played out in a more serialized way than it had been in previous seasons. The lack of serialization before wasn't really driven by the creative desires of the writers or the cast, but driven by the economic realities or at least the *perceived* economic realities of the long-term health of the show and the ability to show it in repeats and to foreign viewers.

> [...] as I said, I wanted to make that last season as serialized  as I possibly could, even within the framework of the stand-alone episodes.

Given the existing pre-occupation with the episodic structure, the "*more serialized approach*" mentioned here by Biller arguably did not go as far as a six-episode arc (after returning home or otherwise), neither it was supposed to. In fact, it already seemed rather too-little-too-late; here is actor Robert Beltran (Chakotay), commenting on "*the Chakotay/Seven of Nine thing that came up*":

> So they just kind of threw us together and it seemed to me that if they had been thinking instead of one episode after the other, but thinking in the long run, what great stuff they could have written preparing for that.

According to the oral histories preserved in the book, everybody seems to agree that *a lot* of things and ideas were considered for the finale, including killing Janeway and/or Seven of Nine; but (and here you have to take my word for it, as I obviously cannot quote the whole chapter), there is not the *slightest* indication that something in the lines of *let's bring them back before the show's end, proceed from there to show how well or not they manage to adapt, and finish there* was ever considered.

In fact, the most direct (although still not explicit) testimony that something like that could not have happened even as a thought, comes from Rick Berman himself, and, rather unsurprisingly, has to do with the very essence of *Voyager*:

> It was a great idea to go in the direction we did with the show, but at the same time there's something about venturing outward and trying to get back home that are diametrically different from one another. *Star Trek* by and large is a show about exploration, and exploration is going forth, it's not trying to find your way home.

... *let alone what you do **after** you are back home*, we can arguably hear him saying, although not explicitly...

  [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Year-Mission-Generation-Uncensored-Unauthorized/dp/1250089468/