Whereas, I respect nearly everyone's opinion here,

[misanthrope]

89. "The hero survives and dies an essentially natural death"?

Don Corleone survives and dies an essentially natural death, but his family is ruined.

Michael Corleone survives and ends up utterly alone and emotionally miserable. Everything he ever loved is destroyed. He dies an essentially natural death but his character suffers an even worse artistic fate by being part of the abomination that was Godfather III.

In Goodfellas, Joe Pesci's character, Tommy, is taken out. Robert De Niro's character, Jimmy goes to prison. Ray Liotta's character, Henry goes into witness protection (which is a life of ceaseless paranoia) and back to incarceration.

In the Sopranos, most all of the main characters die and their families are damaged. While the creators left artful wiggle room in the final scene, it is pretty much a given that Tony dies in that eatery.

To me, those stories all show a type of life best avoided. The psychological and physical destruction is too great.