Liquidation is the worst option because it loses the value of the bank as an ongoing operation and risks contagion and a meltdown that crushes other banks and companies. This is a real danger with potential systemic consequences. Major SVB business customers are already getting crushed, regional and midsize banks are in the cross hairs, and the similarly upscale and supposedly safe San Francisco based First Republic Bank is said to be experiencing a bank run at their LA branch.
The best way for the FDIC to deal with the Silicon Valley Bank is to make sure that it reopens and operates as normal on Monday morning -- with new owners and fresh signage; free donuts, cookies, and coffee in the morning, followed by bottled water, sodas, and finger sandwiches by 11 AM; experienced executives projecting affability and assurance; and so over staffed and flush with cash that no depositor wanting their money out experiences any delay or limits.
Banks that do that in a crisis survive and find that jittery depositors are back in force in days.
I got to wondering last night if you were talking about a Whole Bank P&A. Dug one out this afternoon via Google
https://www.fdic.gov/resources/resolutions/bank-failures/failed-bank-list/cnbbartow-p-and-a.pdf
Even in those, there was a schedule of deposits not assumed.
I don’t know if there were any uninsured depositors in that one, but if so, yes, it looks like they would have been made whole if there weren’t on the referenced schedule 2.1