The Alien universe is brutal and realistic. No happy ending against all odds lasts here. I like that and I like that they died. I do understand that the way they died was insulting for the people who liked those characters. I personally never understood why they were so liked. I always considered them secondary characters, though killing a child was a ballsy move.
My favorite characters in Aliens, besides Ripley of course, were Hudson and Apone, but they died as they should've. No one is safe from the alien. I also like that part of the prequels, though again it does help that I found Shaw very annoying. I liked Daniels quite a bit, but meh, plot armor be damned, David doesn't give a f*ck, he can have her.
That's also why I recoil in fear when I hear about continuing Ripley's story. Don't make her the goddess that destroys a billion aliens, please. The comics are already testing my suspension of disbelief with how many times can Amanda survive her encounters, especially with the last comic and the horde of aliens. But it's not that bad, yet.
Keep the aliens deadly, no character should be safe from them. These movies survived and were so popular in large part cause of the creature. And I think the Alien is more important than any one character, even Ripley.