In my opinion the prequests should be there. I would like the shop to reset every now and then, perhaps once a year.
I agree that it's bad design, they could have made the quest automatically forfeit and pop up or notify you that you've failed once you die. But to be fair it does list it as a requirement in the quest dialogue, so if you still die after accepting it you would then question whether you've failed the quest or not, right?