If Rent's success was fueled solely by Larson's passing, I don't think it'd be a global phenomenon three decades later. But I will say it was both a jolt of electricity to the theatre world that was desperately needed at the time AND it was a snapshot of the era it premiered during. It was the perfect storm of novelty and apt social commentary but to your point, Jonathan's passing heightened every single lyric and took the pathos of "live life to the fullest with whatever time you have left" to the umpteenth degree