My thinking also. I really don't think a fake cliffhanger works well for a series that is this serious in tone. It kind of feels fake and awkward. And I, like most readers, knew Magna was not going to fall for that because it is so obvious.
Has anyone commented on Rick going wild beating up that - are they mounted guards or herders or something? - like he is crazy? That is more interesting to me than the Negan fake cliffhanger. But then in the next book we see Rick arrive at the compound and treated like he is Captain America.
It would be more interesting to me if people hated on Rick and are afraid of him in a Saddam Hussein kind of way - clearly he now has this propensity for casual violence on his people. Did his kid Carl even flinch seeing dad beat the crap out of a person?
But we are forced to concentrate on someone we just met named Magna and boring predictable Negan.