I personally don't want the calls at all, however, I think it would be a lot more tolerable for me if my sims could silence their phone and keep it silenced - as something of a 'workaround'. Or as an alternative, look up obituaries on the PC (since we don't have the newspaper that I miss dearly anymore). That would certainly give players more choice in the matter.
The main issue I have is that it's plain unnecessary getting a call out of the blue from a sim you don't know, about a sim you are acquainted with (or in some cases sims you deslike) dying. I just... don't understand the logic behind this, no disrespect. It's worse when your sim is already trying to get over a death, divorce, etc. and receive the call, only to have it stack with the remaining emotions and making me want to bang my head against the keyboard because they're too sad to do anything for days. Not much fun when you play a Legacy. I think the most beneficial option is to keep it limited to 'friends and family', but to me even that could become too much if most of those sims are Elders or you play a large household and decide to move them out into the neighborhood on the same save.