Ah yes, and Moby Dick is just about a man who really hates a whale and wants to kill it.
I never know how to respond to reviews like these. If you actually think that sums up the book pretty well then the problem isn't with Don Quixote...
And I'm definitely not a literature major.
I think it's an apt comparison. If you want a happy ending, you probably shouldn't be reading these books.
The need for a happy ending is a traditionally American taste. So much so that they changed the ending of Clockwork Orange, and other imported novels.
Headspace is important. 50% of all communication is on the receiver after all, so if you are reading a story that is 100% the greatest book of all time but you can barely attention to it you're only gonna get a fraction out of what the book has to offer.
My problem is with artificial, curated reading lists, rather than something organic that arises out of interest.
This reads like a non-sequitur. OP pointed out that your summary of Don Quixote clearly shows you failed to understand the book at all, thus you're criticizing it out of ignorance. Hence the comparison of your summary with claiming that Moby Dick is a story of a guy who hates whales.
Of course critique is largely subjective, so you're free to have a very different experience of the work.