Having finally watched the final I have the same thoughts as I had about the entire series, a resounding "meh".
Going into the final I was reasonably convinced that Joseph would win and so it proved. Seems like a repeat of last year in a lot of ways (although this time I genuinely thought Lord Sugar would take the risk with Vana by the time the boardroom rolled around) - safe choice, expansion of an existing business, etc. At least Joseph wasn't saved on the strength of his business plan quite as blatantly as Mark was, and to be fair he's turned into a strong candidate in recent weeks, even if the state of Vana's business plan hangs over his victory.
So, on the whole? I think Claude did give it something of a shot in the arm, but the format is starting to look a little tired. Too many "shocking!" events aiming for Digital Spy headlines, I think. You're Fired is starting to come to terms with Dee and Ranganathan which is good, I stopped watching early on in the series because Dee was just being given lines written for Dara but I think they had his voice better by the time it became You're Hired.
Perhaps more importantly the show is starting to revolve around the non-business elements for drama. Two examples of what I mean: one, Mergrim being fired because he wasn't good at DIY; two, the change in format to "the food task" that means that the teams are responsible for the taste of the product (contrast earlier series where the meals were produced professionally), which is probably the biggest contributing factor to the whole 'zero orders' thing.