On reflection film doesn't make sense

Rating: 6/10 (7 April 2020)

First off Robin Williams was outstanding lighting up every scene he appears in with his charisma and sincerity but sadly he isn't in the film nearly enough the bulk of screen time going to a group of teenage students who while fairly interesting characters represented by good actors weren't able to hold my attention.
Now the chief issue with Dead Poets Society is that the message of the film seems to be non conformism, thinking for yourself and being an individual the final 3rd seems to tell us that going down that route is a road that will deliver nothing but failure and rejection.
Our hero Robin Williams is fired, one of the boys commits suicide and the fraternal club of non conformists known as The Dead Poets Society are crushed and disbanded by the school hierarchy because they dare to non conform.
Sure there's that happy clappy final scene tacked on at the end but just a little thought would suggest that the boys who escaped expulsion earlier by becoming rats would almost certainly have been expelled for what they did in that final scene.
So the supposedly positive message of the movie that of Carpe Diem is rendered meangingless by the ACTUAL message of the film that being in the end the man always wins.