I can't seem to let my sims die, am I alone?

I'm in a similar boat. My Sims tend to die of old age, but I immediately have to get them to join the family again, because I'm terrified of having my ghosts be culled.

I have mods to prevent culling, but because I routinely delete townies I don't like anyway, I never actually see anybody get culled (anymore), so I don't know if the mods are working properly. It's a vicious circle.