How'd death become boring?

I also ran across this post the other day at RPG.net

Old school gaming, for me, has always been a fighter, a rogue, a wizard and a cleric exploring a chain of identifical 10'x10' rooms to find the gold. An orc, a kobold and a skeleton appear and kill the cleric. The wizard steps on a trap. Yawn.

You know, I'd pay if that takes you four hours to do that much, fair enough.

But ignoring time taken for now, what's the issue here? Is there no chance of the cleric avoiding death? Not by luck and/or by player choice? Same with the trap?

Does the cleric not count as anything tragic - a human death? If it's not a glamourous death, its nothing and boring?

I dunno about you, but I get this weird hollow feeling trying to figure the mindset behind this. It's a mindset where death means nothing while granduer and style apparently are the significant thing. All style, really, really big style. But no heart underneath, just a hollow in the middle.