I thought both GL and ATWT's finales were mostly bad, but I thought ATWT's was an especially dreadful, bland and lethargic affair which came and went in a day. It does not register in my mind because the show seemed dead to me years before they finally cancelled it. It felt like Chris Goutman* just wanted to be done for years, and that final hour was just his quick exit. You can say a lot about how GL went out (and I can and will) but it definitely didn't sleep its way into the grave - it committed to Ellen Wheeler's insanity all the way. Going out ugly beats going out without me noticing.
That is a fantastic idea and would've been a lovely tribute for any soap to do to actors in a oft-recast role. Start and finish the day on the current actors but cycle through all the others throughout the scenes before going back to the incumbents.
* - incidentally, there is a story floating around alleging that Moore would've done a bit more ("a solid ten, fifteen minutes") in her brief appearance had Goutman not jumped the gun when she agreed and attempted to schedule her in for multiple episodes.