Hopefully, having had his most famous character killed off in an anticlimatic and unworthy fashion, Shatner will resist efforts to do so with his 2nd most famous.
How would have preferred Kirk die? Would it be more heroic for him to yell, "Look at me, people! I'm dying for all of you! With my sacrifice, you shall live. And I expect you to tell your great grandchildren about the noble, heroic and selfless James T. Kirk who gave his life to save yours!"
I don't think they should have killed him off. But if he had to die, it should have been on the bridge of the Enterprise and should have been spectacular. Dying by having a bridge fall on him, following a punch up between three elderly men, that would have shamed a 1950s western? Come on!