Games, especially in the current AAA space, are homogenized though. Like Apex Legends made a really good ping system and then Fortnite and basically every multiplayer game with coop elements immediately copied it. I'm not even saying it's a bad thing, I think in that instance it's great, but it is homogenization. Games more then pretty much any medium copy and build off each other.
I don't have a problem with
Joel's death, but that perception of Joel is on ND. Joel and basically every character in the series are in universe unstoppable killing machines. This is a series with multiple children that with barely or no real training are Hawkeye level archers running around taking out adults with guns. Ellie in Part 2 gets impaled on a tree and then spends hours literally bleeding like a stuck pig and just walks it off and keeps taking out squads of people.
Tommy not only survives getting shot in the head, but also the leg and spends hours bleeding out of the hole in his dead with no medical attention)
Even ignoring gameplay stuff, Joel is the worst about this and is consistently depicted as superhuman. Joel not only survives falling 10 feet and getting impaled, but gets up and keeps gunning down people. Some how he just gets better from having his intestines torn apart with apparently no surgery. Despite being nearly dead and incapable of taking care himself, a shot of penicillin Popeyes him and he's perfectly fine outside of occasionally going "owie" and acting like a child with a tummy ache. He's so fine in fact that he seemingly takes out all of David's people. Then there's the whole end of the first game. This is how Part 2 chose to depict what Joel did
Joel canonically John Wicked his way through squads of heavily armed people and left the hospital like he's a slasher villain.
Even the show which they talked up making Joel more vulnerable with his issue with his knee and hearing, still had him do tons of over the top shit. The series plays it really fast and loose with when it wants to be realistic and grounded.