Being a fan of Ellen Wheeler as Marley is not the same as being a fan of what she did at GL. AFAIC, she turned the show into a bootleg nil-budget show where they had people changing in the backs of cars and bringing stuff from home for wardrobe. Her office doubled as a set. I can go on. It was unconscionable. It feigned at naturalism when really, they did not have the production or post skills to even begin to carry off what they were attempting to do. As a former editor it was hard to watch; as a professional writer, worse. The show became aimless, poorly-edited and audio-mixed vignettes going nowhere. It was a sad end. I know that period has its fans, I am not one of them.
Her heart was in the right place and I truly believe she loved the show, but that is not enough. IMO she was not capable or competent for the task she was given. Nothing could've saved GL, but it didn't have to go out like that. And as a gay fan I always found her hands-off, neutered treatment of "Otalia" - through a heavily Mormon (and therefore fundamentally anti-gay) lens, in which the primary function of all women on the show, gay or not, was to procreate and multiply, preferably with the disheveled Frank Dicopoulos - offensive.
YMMV, but that's me.
So am I. Claire Labine did not write, create or cast the adult Jonathan or any of his story. The timeline is very clear on who did and she was not a part of it. She was long gone before Ellen, Kreizman or Pelphrey, let alone Conboy (who introduced Sandy/Jonathan #1).