I liked IBO in large part for that exact reason though. It was a pretty realistic handling of character death, honestly. Orga decided not only to fuck around in the shadiest and darkest of underground circles, but also decided, against all forewarnings and conventional wisdom, to shortcut the way to Tekkadan's success as much as possible. And I believe if it were any other story, most people wouldn't think twice about the fact that when you cross dangerous people, there's usually severe comeuppance sooner or later. I don't know why a lot of IBO's viewers suddenly decided this couldn't possibly be the case with Gundam, but it should have been pretty obvious (at least, it always was to me) when you looked at the entire setting objectively.
Death isn't always glamorous. Death can, and often does, come in the most inglorious and abrupt of ways, especially when its least expected. And it makes no distinctions for the importance or significance of any person, or at least from a realistic standpoint, it should, if the writing doesn't protect those individuals through some means or another.
