I have never seen her death as a big deal. My uncle just said "She dies in the Final Fantasy she appears" when I first played Kingdom Hearts, and that's how I found out.
And I didn't saw the death itself until last summer. In between, to me, she was in the same group as Tellah, Galuf, General Leo, Joseph, Ricard, etc.
Then, I saw it, and I thought her situation was more incredible compared to the others. But then I saw the ending...