I must be blind because I looked up and down that list at least three times and did not see Days Of Our Lives. Definitely hard to defend it but my mom raised me on it in the early 80s and I watched pretty faithfully until around 2003ish. I haven't had cable or an antenna that will pick up NBC in years so I have no idea what it's like now, but I'd agree with the late 80s/90s being the best period.
It isn't on the list but I figured since he included Passions in the list DOOL was fair game too so I included it.
Right now it is garbage--its budget has been drastically cut and the sets look like ones from a high school production and all the interesting storylines from that the 80s/90s are just being recycled to worse effect--baby swaps, faked pregnancies involving pregnancy pads, look-a-likes and switcheroos, burying people alive etc.