They've got to walk on a certain amount of eggshells considering that children's networks don't like permanent deaths of humanoid-like characters. If killing some insignificant character means getting the show canceled, that sounds like a stuff deal.
Hopefully, that changes soon. Considering shows on Cartoon Network (at the very least) are becoming more grown-up oriented, with some phrases once considered "too adult" being used regularly in the shows I've seen, hopefully, they'll evolve to have more grown-up plots as well.
I mean, I grew up on kid-oriented animated films from the 90s and 80s. People died permanently A LOT in those movies, and if none of the good guys did, the bad guy almost certainly got killed.
like this