I am sort of on the .65 part of the house, as I am in training to become an ATC, so I don't have any practical experience to speak from when I tell you the wait a pain in the neck it would be if a lost comm in IFR/IMC conditions would be if the pilot decided for no other reason that they were going to land ASAP, come on people, you can't see out the window, how do you know that there isn't any traffic that is short behind you? Stick to the clearance giving to you if you are in IFR conditions (As far as I have been taught this means even in VMC in Class A airspace). However, if the pilot goes lost comm while VFR, MAINTAIN VFR and land as soon as pracitical. I'll see if I can dig up the .65 section dealing with loss comm.
As far as the electical failure with radio, that is the thing, you don't know if your transponder is working, if you have a complete radio failure, but I have seen transmitters go out, and not the recievers. Also, sometimes our primary radar is down and we are just running on secondary (I'm told this isn't likily anymore, but it happens) so yeah, your 4096 quits, you have become non-radar and we need to you stick to your ETA/EFC times, unless you can maintain VFR and land ASAP.
If there are any other controllers reading this, please if I missed something/mislead the pilots, please let me know.