The Ending of Atla is cool and all, and I think it could've been better.
Consider the following: Azula's character, like Zuko, is rooted deeply in obsessive behavior. She is a cutthroat and ruthless woman, willing to murder anyone in her way to achieve her goals. During the ending episodes of Atla, what is her goal? As Sozin's comet comes near, defeating the Avatar becomes less and less pressing. We also see that, in the crowning ceremony of Ozai to Pheonix King, Azula desperately wants to join her father on this conquest to scorch everything off the face of the continent.
Now imagine reader, an alternate timeline where the episodes leading up to this one aren't her mentally breaking down, but mentally breaking up. Rather than getting depressively angry at herself for all of her friends and allies abandoning her, her living a life subservient to her father, or hmfor her being straight up evil, that instead she goes insane, determined to fight and slaughter the Avatar herself. She resolves in that moment to do whatever it takes to finish the job that she started at the end of Ba Sing Se. So, when her father initially rejects her request to go and burn the world down, her cold and calculating mind comes up with an on-the-fly plan to kill Ozai, possibly via lightning bending some good ol' fashioned lightning into his heart.
The palace would remain empty, completely undefended to Zuko and Katara invading. These two, for the purposes of the finale, don't matter. Even if they were killed in the original show, it wouldn't impact the fight against Ozai which actually matters. What this would impact is the final fight between Ozai and Aang. Aang hasn't ever actually seen or interacted with Ozai up to the finale, so his entire concept of him boils down to "The best, most evil firebender in the world." Aang *has* interacted with Azula before, and nearly died doing so. I believe this tension, combined with Azula's newly found unstoppable insanity, would make for a much more compelling fight. She is firing on all cylinders. She *will* continue fighting until either she or Aang dies, or she is physically prevented from fighting. She has also mastered the art of lightning bending, something that Aang isn't prepared for and would have to be worked around during the fight.
How would this fight end? Well, remember Zuko and Katara? They probably aren't going to sfay around an ampty palace with a dead Ozai forever. They'll get back on Appa and head out roughly in the direction of where the airships set sail, only arriving at the most convenient moment where Aang has been pushed against the wall, with Azula preparing one last lethal burst of lightning. This is where lightning bender Zuko jumps in, taking the hit and shooting it right back at Azula. The fight then beco.es Zuko denying Azula the ability to zap Aang while Katara works her water powers to heal and rejuvenate him again, unlocking his last Chakra and allowing him to enter the Avatar state. With the help of Zuko in the Aang sphere acring as lightning defense, Azula is pushed furter and further back into the ocean, leading to the original "lock down the final megaboss in stone and take away their bending" ending. However, unlike that ending, Azula is 100% going to win the spirit fight. Daddy didn't raise no chump, and this clearly takes a strain on Aang just to resist her. This is where Zuko and Katara, two charachters who harbor much more resentment and distain for Azuka, help Aang in some esoteric way, either laying their hands on him and lending their power to him, or torturing the hell out of Azula until she more or less gives up. Cue the original "Azula has a depressive mental breakdown after being defeated" that played out in our timeline's palace grounds.
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