Maybe Oda's goal was to tie Pound's "death" in with the concept of dying when you are forgotten. Lola and Chiffon never knew about him, meaning he was never alive for those he cared about. Then he "died" and later was able to tell his daughters who he was, becoming alive for the first time since they were born.
Based on this, Pound living makes this concept even better to me. The execution was terrible, but only bc the scene was so dramatic and seemed like Pound really was dead.
On the other hand, Pound is a minor character and not worth getting mad at, even if everything about him were to be bad.