I'm a bit confused by this comment. They updated the way gravestones and urns work and added new ones for our merfolk. Now we can "woohoo" with Grim, and they added a way for players to create ghosts in CAS. There are also other improvements, such as new occult options in CAS. All of this is optional unless I've missed something.
Even the latest Life and Death EP isn't going to force funerals on you, at least I highly doubt it. I certainly understand where you're coming from with not wanting a lot of death-related content in your game, but it should be able to be played around.