I think a large reason why many of us did not enjoy the book as much as we had wanted, is the fact that Harry and the trio did not return to Hogwarts.
Hogwarts, which oiled the cogs and set the wheels in motion. Where they could gather insider information and we could see where JKR's direction. Everything in the other books had happened at Hogwarts, and maybe that was just the norm for us. I mean, even in the final book, most of the action takes place in ... you guessed it, Hogwarts!
I think that the relative understatedness of Snape's death did not suit the years of sacrifice, loyalty that Snape showed. It could have been so much more dramatic had he revealed himself as forever loyal to Dumbledore, just so we could see that nasty little smirk of Voldemort vanish into a malevolent sneer. I mean, this is Snape - the most courageous person that Harry would ever know - Snape, who despite his flaws and his predisposition to the evils of the wizarding world, committed to the safety of Harry Potter. Snape, who loved Harry's mother more than life itself... He deserved much more of a spectacular, dramatic death than the one he got. He didn't deserve to die at all, but if he did, it should have been with a pang, with a fight, with the steely resistance of arguably the only Death Eater to fool Voldemort whilst being in the inner circle.
I think that yes, the book did take more of a mature look at death but JKR could have noted how the deaths in the book affected Harry. Fred - always a supporter of Harry, forever loyal; Remus - who loved Harry as if he was his own, who nurtured the extraordinary ability of Harry and Tonks, with whom Harry had taken a liking to ever since The Order of the Phoenix. In other books, we could see how much death had weighed Harry down - Mirror of Erised book one, Cedric Diggory in Goblet; Sirius in five; Dumbledore in six. In book seven, I don't know why, but Harry seemed void of any shred of regret that had made him human before. I'm sure that he did mourn the deaths of those who had fallen - it just would have been much more of a wholesome book of JKR added some sort of obituaries to them at the end.
Death should be more profound than this.