Moiraine was one of my favorite characters because of her interesting personality in the "wise guide" role, and I thought her "death" had raised the stakes for the main characters. Then found out that she had a backdoor escape plan, which cheapened her sacrifice.

I'm not asking for mounds of corpses to be piled up outside of Rand's doorstep, but I did expect to see more meaning in the deaths that have occurred.

I would argue, for example, that there would be many Nynaeve fans who would have loved it if she captured Moghedien, defeated Rahvin on her own and then died in some heroic act of self-sacrifice. Just because you really like a character doesn't mean you want them to be god-like and beyond danger.