spaw, I don't want to be getting into a fight but:
I think there will always be people who jump to the end regardless and would probably still do so even if they were forced to go to the first page. They wouldn't read but would just click on last page straight away. You won't change that.
On the other hand, there are people with slow connections who have been following a thread and simply want to catch up. It's those who should be helped and IMO allowing a person to go directly to the last page does just that.