Many thanks for your response, Steve! The comparison between Kurt Cobain --- or Sylvia Plath or Virginia Woolf --- and religiously devoted people who commit suicide as a coherent protest really does illuminate a vast and important spiritual difference which I can perceive but can't quite articulate. This difference strikes me as vastly important, though: a difference between avoidance and self-sacrifice, to put it very crudely. Likewise, I don't have a conclusion or answer and find thinking on the question helpful.