i am adding tim minear to my list of show creators who don't understand their characters, their creation, or their audience and the desire (more importantly: lack of desire) for main character deaths:
tim minear: "once i started thinking that somebody had to die, then the choice was, who? and the only choice that i thought made sense was bobby. it makes sense for his character to have a tragic sacrifice as a conclusion of his entire journey in the show. and also, if there’s a character whose death is going to affect the most characters, who would that be? so, go big or go home. bobby’s death gives new life to every single character’s story. it changes everything. it’s not a shock moment. it’s not a superficial thing. it is a potentially game-changing thing. is it a skinny branch i’m crawling out on? maybe. but i will never be convinced that it wasn’t the right creative move. so, no, it’s not because peter wanted to leave. i don’t think he wanted to leave. we’re great friends. he’s fantastic on the show. he’s so good that it made [the decision] a terrifying choice on my part, which is why i felt like, 'OK, well, maybe that’s the right choice. do the scary thing.'" (xx)
rob thomas: "and i love jason dohring and i love logan echolls as a character in the show. but this [killing logan] felt like cutting off an arm to save the body. now, if we never get to do any more of these because the fans hate me, then it was a mistake [...] it feels like i placed a bet. and i may lose that bet or I may win that bet. if you never get to see another veronica mars episode because the fans hated it and turned on the show, then i lost the bet. if we get to do more and it becomes a long-running veronica mars detective series that we get to do every once in a while, then i think i won the bet." (xx)
jeff davis: "you want to make big choices. you don't want to do a movie and say, 'well that could've just been another episode of the show.' you want to make it feel grand. [...] i didn't want to do it [kill derek] without tyler's blessing, so i called him up and said, 'what do you think if we gave derek a big, heroic, sacrificial ending?' and he was like, 'i'm in. let's go for it.'[...] you second-guess yourself all the time. you say, 'are we really doing this? maybe we should plan something that'll bring him back.' but there's also part of you that wants to commit." (xx)