My take on that was that Bartender Al, was meant to be some sort of incarnation of GFTW, but that the ultimate message to Sam was "you will only do this as long as you want to". I never felt that rang true with his obvious and very well acted (thanks detractors) aching desire to get home. I reconcile this with the…

"One at a time? The lives you touched, touch others. And those live's, others. You've done a lot of good Sam Becket". I would agree with you otherwise, and they did save this line for almost literally the last possible moment