The village chief didn't die and there's not that much emotional impact for Darmani because his grave is already finished and his ceremony/funeral already happened. There's few actual NPCs and they all either say "oh my god baby shut the fuck up" or "oh darn Darmani died." In general I think you're really overstating the Chief/son thing because all that really happens is that the baby's crying because the chief left for a while. You can find the chief perfectly safe and sound (although still old obviously) and tells you he's stepping down from position of Elder after you let the spring thaw happen.
If the whole thing is supposed to be about the Elder failing then again it's a pretty empty chapter of the game because the Elder has like 3 dialogue boxes in the required part of it and nothing really happens besides him being comically frozen in the ice.
I felt absolutely no impact from "Darmani refusing to die." He has exactly ONE line about "Please magical one, return me to life!" and then immediately afterwards, "or just relieve my suffering whatevs" and you play the Song of Healing and he's fine. ---