It prolly would have been something more like “I survived til the end of the fight, but the person who died right away was given the item I want and wouldn’t trade.” We tended to get posts like that instead.
That said, I do think that people who purposefully die at the start of a fight should either be kicked or exempt from rolls. I would say a certain amount of fight participation in order to be able to loot, but that would end up a tricky slope that could just punish genuine newbies instead of lazy leeches. 