The success of the show has nothing to do with me feeling this aged badly, but....
"The Richard Dawson comeback season of Feud was an abomination..."
Sure they cut back a lot within the show, the Bullseye/Bankroll still took up time, I missed the classic set, and well, the start of the downward spiral of Ray Combs. But it was more solid than I remembered it being. Richard wasn't in his prime, but I still liked his work and was glad he got to return to TV in his more mellowed out form, after leaving the original show amidst stories of ego and being a nightmare backstage. The jazzy theme worked for an updated/nighttime FF, and would probably fit in with the current version better.
On the same token I can say the same about Davidson PIR...yes it was a different format and different looking show, but quite nice for what it was too.
Oh! Seeing as I was partially responsible for the nickname...
"The time without most of the Goodson-Todman shows was GSN's 'dark period'..."
No. We now see we could and did have it a lot worse. Late 1997-98 at least gave us several Sony-owned shows we otherwise wouldn't see, and indeed in many cases have not for long time. Was it perfect? Nope, but given the circumstances I can say it worked.