One time my toddler died from the bonfire from the UNI Ep.
Their mother died too, in another savefile!
The animations were for older sims.
So yes, toddlers can actually die!
Atleast in my game!

Could this lead to longer term game problems, though? I'm afraid it'd be risky.

Very handy piece of CC, that bbq ...

I had a toddler die once in TS2, who was the alien child of Pascal Curious. I was redecorating and put his crib outside and it got struck by lightning. I have no idea why he died, I thought they were protected or something, but he did, and his ghost would sometimes crawl around at night time.

People do all kinds of things to their sims. I don't think killing off a child or toddler or any sim for their stories makes people "dicks"
I find it more "dickish" that someone revives an 8 year old thread just to pass judgement on the way some people might play.

I'd perhaps worry about their mental state a bit if it was all they ever did, and posted it all over the place, but I've never seen anyone do that.
Granted, I don't go looking, but whatever.

I choked on my coffee and now need to clean my desk but totally worth it

And that other Sim behind the window is begging not to do this OMG . I'll be honest though that mod gives me the creeps lol.

I once written up a challenge for that mod, where your Sim had to conceive babies and survive by only eating them. Shame it got rejected through submission process cause sensitive folks exist.

Extreme violence