As I said, I thought the ethical choice worked well even without the death of the merchant. My objection is the deletion of the sole merchant for half the skill schools.
If a visual consequence is important, here's an idea: There are fifteen Pilgrims at the entrance to the cathedral worshipping around the statue. If you snuff out the candles, the next time you pass through there - which you MUST do for the main quest, they're dead. ALL FIFTEEN OF THEM.
I know you might think that doesn't make sense, but it has to be all of them for the visual impact, and to make it clear what the cause was. Then have a conversation between party members:
[Non-Lhose Party Member]: What the? They're all dead... no signs of violence... it's just like they're puppets who had their strings cut.
Lhose: Is... is this because I snuffed out those candle? I... I did this?
That would be a powerful moment, and it's one the player would be almost guaranteed to see unless for some reason, they have a teleporter pyramid or Crypt waypoint and just zap right there, but that's unlikely.
