Wasn't that just a little heavy-handed?

What are you talking about? Without that, Sanae never would've come with us.

What she needed so she could come to Gensokyo wasn't the death of the flesh, but of the spirit. Despair towards and the loss of all attachments to this world.

It's all for her own good. It was always a waste of an excellent wind priestess for her to be born in this world.