Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Batman
The inclusion of an additional scene towards the end of Matt Reeves' Bruce has a strained, difficult relationship with Alfred, highlighting Bruce's feelings of isolation in Gotham.
The Batman introduces a relatively young Bruce Wayne who is still figuring out how to best wear the cowl of Gotham's defender. Alfred is aware of his nocturnal activities and disapproves of them, showing a paternal concern for Bruce during their interactions. Bruce is mostly standoffish, awkward, and cold to the man who has raised him since the untimely death of his mother and father. When the Riddler attempts revenge on the Wayne family and Alfred is caught in an explosion meant for Bruce, the young vigilante realizes Alfred's meaning to him and comes to understand that his greatest fear is losing someone he cares about. They share a brief moment of understanding and commiseration for their relationship.
In their first interaction in the film, Bruce tells Alfred that he's not his father and Alfred responds that he's well aware of that fact. That there is never a moment where Bruce acknowledges that Alfred has taken over the role of his father and done so in a meaningful way weakens the theme of fatherhood found in The Batman and leaves a dangling thread where their relationship is concerned. The film approaches this in the last scene the two share when Bruce visits Alfred in the hospital and Alfred apologizes for not being the man he feels Bruce needed him to be, telling him he wasn't much of a father. Though Alfred may be right in this assertion, he was all Bruce had and Bruce seems to recognize the importance of Alfred in his life.
The theme of fathers and fatherhood permeates Reeves' The Batman. This theme plays out in who know Bruce Wayne is Batman—will survive his injuries.
A short scene could have solved these issues and tied up this dangling thread. If Bruce and Alfred had been given a single moment like their first scene together where Bruce was simply less standoffish to Alfred and the two shared a warm moment, it would have gone miles to show Bruce's growth and the singular positive portrayal of a father in the film. Something along these lines would have served the theming of the film more completely than the incarnation of the film that currently exists and helped Alfred to feel more like the important character he is clearly meant to be in The Batman.
