;O how deep does the rabbit hole go.
mm, may have overdone with the hyperbole there. In comparison to destroying the town or children's base/symbol of the future? progress? you're sacrificing multiple people who would agree to it, with reasons ranging from solving the trolley problem through fatalism/defeatism to grief/guilt. Nonetheless, it is consensual. IIRC the faction is the one with killers/lawbreakers in it, as well. As for the puppet angle - in this case it's just a story, so not just their sacrifice, but the ending as well loses it's weight. If it's a story, you can just say it takes only a few miserable people (and a few heroic figures) to save the entire town and call it a day. Because the town is fictional even within the game to begin with.
As for 'dealing with death' i have no clue where i heard that idea. Blaming hbomberguy i guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but basically, the opening is children having a pretend funeral - before the plot even starts, before the setting is established. Yes, it could just be to establish the mood, but still. Furthermore, the wiki has this:
On the final Day 12, should the healer successfully heal both their Bound and the Bound of the other two healers, they will receive a letter from The Powers That Be - and they're not happy. They will insist that the healer is ruining their game by doing whatever they please. (...) They're playing a morbid game to distract themselves from a recent funeral - and the healers are their dolls.
So some death is desired. (and p sure they do mention Bachelor is usually a villain, but it is ambiguous if in general or they keep redoing the scenario)
SMT is relevant only tangentially in that the neutral ("good") ending takes extra effort, was super secret and then just became par for the course as majority went for neutral endings since
Speaking of Pathologic, couldn't Clara's experiences inform Fyodor in some way? I feel like there's something there, with Fyodor and his Ability. Particularly how it was shown in Dead Apple... It ties into The Double as well, and Crime and Punishment/Ivan's talk with the Devil, to some extent... Hm, I hope this is a good track.