The importance of the Four-Star Ball in GT's finale

[Captain Cadaver]

So, this video by Geekdom101 ended up in my recommended and, despite the main point of it relying too much on the sources that inspired DB rather than DB's own world building and lore, there was one point made that I'm surprised doesn't get brought up enough concerning GT's ending; that being the chain of events that transpired from Goku swallowing the Four-Star Ball.

Firstly, we have Si Xing Long having a far different personality upon his revival than before. He was initially fully prepared to face Goku in a fight to the death and only changed plans due to San's underhanded tactics and Goku's blinded condition, whereas he presents himself as a full ally upon his revival with no sense of it purely being a temporary alliance. This shows the influence Goku's Plus Energy had upon the Dragon Ball and, therefore, creates a link between he and the Dragon Ball.
That said, this link being created through Goku's random action helps explain a lot of elements surrounding the last two episodes. For instance, Goku's ability to clash against Yi Xing Long's Minus Energy Power Ball and survive can be seen as Goku being protected by the Dragon Balls, be it through his link with them perhaps creating a bond similar to that of their creator or their magical nature allowing him to transcend the laws of reality to some extent (at least when it comes to how he functions compared to the typical dead) or even gain some form of enlightenment as some theorise. There's also one of the main scriptwriters of GT, Atsushi Maekawa's take on it:

To be honest, in GT episode 63, just before the final episode, a big change comes over Goku. Those who watched carefully might have noticed, but… In that episode, Goku, who takes Yi Xing Long‘s attack, sinks to the bottom of a deep hole. That is the turning point. Afterward, Goku still continues the battle, but what’s different from before is that he’s cloaked in an aura that won’t let any attack near him.
It might be that he died there, or it might be that he became something else entirely. I’ll leave that decision to the imaginations of everyone who watched. However, the Goku up to that point that everyone knows clearly does not appear after that.

Whether it's through a death different to what is typical in DB or through some form of enlightenment, the link created by the Dragon Ball helps in making this a believable change rather than a complete asspull. This is further reinforced by Goku and Shenron having some mutual understanding of where they're going during the last episode, with their being some sort of mental (and possibly spiritual) link.
Of course, we must bring up Piccolo Daimao as he obviously didn't get any buffs from swallowing a Dragon Ball. The difference is pretty easy to explain though in that Goku had a pure heart whereas Daimao was filled with such pure evil it would only increase the Minus Energy within the Dragon Balls. The purity in Goku is likely what allowed him to achieve all this under the conditions.

Going past Goku's survival/spiritual change and onto him leaving, the question that remains is why did he have to? Even leaving aside the implications that it caused him to ascend to some different state of being (eg. his full gi being left behind despite him still wearing his damaged gi when leaving), his link with Shenron would necessitate it if Shenron was to leave the mortal realm in order to remove the Dragon Balls.
All that said, it does seem as though Goku's swallowing of the Dragon Balls leads to a strong case of cause and effect in the climax and finale, regardless of what interpretation you have on his sudden comeback against Yi Xing Long, and helps explain it as something a bit more than just main character plot armour.

So, with all that taken into account, would you say this has improved the ending of GT for you?