I strongly disagree with you, this scene has an effect precisely because this NPC is important and loved by the players. Any other hero can travel with her, but not Dark Urge.
Dark Urge was originally intended to be a very evil and violent passage...
The effect is achieved even better with the unique NPC they've created, so it's not really true that Alfira is why it's a shocking scene. It would be shocking regardless of who it is because it comes out of nowhere.
If you don't believe me; I recommend playing the scene through the metagaming technique and you will see that unlike Alfira, the unique NPC is so much more emotionally compelling with her reasons to stay at the camp. She isn't pushy, annoying nor demanding, she simply is going through some extremely troubled times and just asks for a place to spend the night while she's also writing a book. If she is turned down, she will still thank the player and leave politely.
Unlike Alfira who is there only because she wants inspiration for her songs, which makes her pushy, demanding and even ends up calling the player a bastard if she's turned down. Ultimately they took a prominent NPC just for pointless shock value and made her annoyingly demanding before her sudden demise which adds absolutely nothing meaningful to Dark Urge's story.
