It's only slight thread necromancy... this one's still warm.
*shrug* One of the most infamous final strikes I recall had the following traits:
1. Was part of a global RP in progress, that included PK in various locations
2. Was timed perfectly to catch a group of the mage's enemies when they weren't ready
3. Was appropriately lethal, as you'd expect. I don't recall anyone being upset that equipment was destroyed: we were the enemy and we lost a lot to a very decisive strike. Kudos to you, sir mage.
4. The mage was given a different adjective - but one very appropriate: charred. Not sure if he ever got his original one back, but it was a nice reward for both his PK tactics and roleplay that day.
It wasn't such a golden age though - we had just as many sorc-go-boom at the drop of the hat - and even revolving door imm-resurrections weren't unhead of. But that didn't mean the few carefully executed Final Strikes were any less respected... if anything they stood out more as being worthy of praise because the throwaway FS casts of others paled in comparison, usually in terms of targets that were surely not worth a mage's utter self-destruction.
If you only manage to kill one or two characters with FS, I'd almost dismiss it ICly as though you "meant to cast something else and got it horribly wrong. Dabbling in dangerous majiks is not for the faint of heart" etc.