But most importantly....
4. Women swoon for Daryl, and therefore he keeps and brings in a critical demographic for the show.
I suppose Trek tried the same strategy with Tripp or Connor Trinneer but Tripp was never the bad boy with the heart of gold.
Yeah. And remember how positively fans reacted to Trip dying.

What a wonderful completeness it gave to the end of ENT and what a positive effect it had on the story.
You have to write story after the shock. A shocking twist needs to result in good story. If you do it for the shock, it's worthless. They're not going to kill Daryl unless Norman Reedus wants to leave. TPTB can BS all they want, but they won't do it. It's not the "swoon" factor. I love Daryl to death, but he's not that attractive physically. It's the character. After the finale, he and Rick are officially "bromance" city, and that works for me. Friendships work as an overriding theme. Sherlock and Watson on BBC's
Sherlock.House and Wilson on
House. Bashir and O'Brien on
DS9. Hey....Kirk and Spock.
Rick and Daryl could be OTP friendship bromance #1.

No killing Daryl. They won't do it, and I'm soooo glad Rick's got his mojo back. Andrew Lincoln is more than capable. As for who won't make it out of Terminus, we can only hope that's Beth on the barbecue.

Seriously, besides Beth (who's still rather superfluous) the death that would carry the greatest impact but still create good story would be either Glenn or Maggie.
Rick, Michonne, Daryl, Carol, Carl (optional) Glenn and Maggie (optional) and Tyrese make a fine core group in my opinion.