Yeah, trying to wipe his existence away isn't respect to my mind... it's a big dishonor. I'm obviously jaded, though. I'm a huge Vampire Hunter D fan, and while I was sad when D's voice actor died, I did not at all agree with the Japanese tradition of no sequels because the voice actor died, despite the fact that there were over a dozen novels not yet made into movies. I cheered when America made Bloodlust year slater and had it dubbed into Japanese after the fact.
I'm going with the MIB explanation here. A person is smart, people are dumb, panicky cattle. All it takes is that one person to throw a fit and everyone else follows, sadly.