Yeah, I understand what you mean. I was just ruminating.
I guess my reaction to Q1 was much like the assessment of it in that Wikipedia article. The whole nature of the Abyss as portrayed in the end encounter just seemed rather coo-coo, almost light-hearted. Considering the nature of the place, I'd have expected the Abyss to have been more hellish, for lack of a better word. Some of the tangential stuff - Maldev, the plane with the last refuge of good, a dwarven stronghold, about to fall; a world completely overrun by vampires, etc. - seemed a lot more menacing than where the PCs finally beard Lolth in her lair. The end occurring on a mechanical spider that could have the PCs encounter floating smiley faces or flower petals showering out of nowhere just seemed like a strange way to end it. If I ever get a chance to run it again, I'll have to borrow some of your ideas to replace the end gambit.
I have no problem with Queen of the Spiders, the GDQ collection, being ranked at the top of greatest modules. But that's due more to the strength of the Giants and Drow modules, as well as the side treks in Q1, than to Q1 itself. The direction you had intended would have been a cool way to wrap it up.