Of course, they were moving away from Jason/Jake and Liz.
Herbst had been fired.

Herbst and Liz received an 11 hour reprieve.

Liz was telling Sam shortly before Jake's death that she was going to have to tell Jake Jason was his father.
They couldn't put it off any longer.

Jason would have done right by Jake.
Sam and Danny should not have been an issue.
I would have preferred the story being Jason's struggle.
Where did Jason's heart lie?
Liz or Sam.
The angle of Jake finding out later about the lie has been done already.

I believe GH walked away from good story by turning Sam into something she's not.

The executives should have never let her dictate the flow of stories.

I hope with Jason returning, Liz gets her chance with Jason.
The bad timing choices of both Liz and Jason finally stops for good.