I agree with everything you said. I am a bit less eloquent though. Transformative works are a creative art. People can't say that Lenny died for free speech and then impose absurd standards on how his life should be celebrated. Lenny made jokes about the Pope, a little fanfiction with his life in a fictional AU that doesn't fetishize his death is not gonna disrespect him. People make transformative art aka fan art all the time.

As a queer person I am extremely thankful to so many unsung artists who have made space for us when no one else was doing it. I love fan art, ao3 and fancams. I have consumed more fanfiction than original works. And a lot of these artists are brilliant. The same arguments of disrespect to the original are made about fanfiction writers too.

If Lenny lives, who is it really offending or disrespecting? Who places so much importance on his tragic death and instead of his life? A happy ending, a good life, an optimistic character arc is underrated because we have collectively decided as a society that suffering has value on its own. How else can we justify our world anyway?