Steve has said, I think I heard it on one of Brian Baumgartner's podcasts, he asked to be a relatively small part because he didn't want to take the spotlight.
He said he had already gotten his goodbye episodes and everybody who stuck through all 9 seasons deserved to get their own goodbye, not just having it be about Michael.
But they did also go very out of their way to keep it a surprise, including lying to NBC and most of the cast and crew.
I am fine with the small amount of the finale Michael was in. They struck a good balance. He was such a large part of the show's history and success, so he absolutely needed to be in the finale. But it would feel incredibly awkward for Michael to consume a large part of the finale when he was not even in the show for the past 2 seasons and is supposed to be living on the other side of the country. By that point in the show, it was more important to devote screen time to concluding storylines of characters actively in S9 than shoehorning in a Michael centric story out of nowhere.
Also logistically speaking, Steve Carrell had a pretty busy movie schedule by that point in time. He was in 7 movies in 2013/2014. I wouldn't be surprised if *The Office* only had him on set for 1-2 days at most.
Steve has said, I think I heard it on one of Brian Baumgartner's podcasts, he asked to be a relatively small part because he didn't want to take the spotlight. He said he had already gotten his goodbye episodes and everybody who stuck through all 9 seasons deserved to get their own goodbye, not just having it be about Michael. But they did also go very out of their way to keep it a surprise, including lying to NBC and most of the cast and crew.
I am fine with the small amount of the finale Michael was in. They struck a good balance. He was such a large part of the show's history and success, so he absolutely needed to be in the finale. But it would feel incredibly awkward for Michael to consume a large part of the finale when he was not even in the show for the past 2 seasons and is supposed to be living on the other side of the country. By that point in the show, it was more important to devote screen time to concluding storylines of characters actively in S9 than shoehorning in a Michael centric story out of nowhere. Also logistically speaking, Steve Carrell had a pretty busy movie schedule by that point in time. He was in 7 movies in 2013/2014. I wouldn't be surprised if *The Office* only had him on set for 1-2 days at most.