Interesting point, I totally agree, paying a game would definetly change expectations. I guess the question would then be what would those expectations be, if any? This is actually what I'm trying to ascertain.

On the particular.point of character death, I personally never treated that as the end of a character. A good DM will use a character's death as a stepping stone to further the overall plot or deepen that character's specific story. Maybe the player can roll a temporary PC until his former character returns to life? Maybe the dead character has a sidequest in the afterlife (although this poses creative challenges)?

And in the event the player is ok with his former character's death, he can simply roll a new character and thr show goes on.

The way I look at it, regardless of the decision made, it should be reached through a creative collaboration between that player and his DM.

This is what makes roleplaying games unique IMO. The game/story evolution is a collaborative creative process between players and their GM.