this bit i completely agree with, a topic as broad based and subjective as death, love, life etc is so huge that the facets it can be examined from seem endless, e.g. emily dickinson wrote alot about death, shakespeare's sonnets include a hell of a lot about love, and the romantics looked at life from hundreRAB of angles, yet all are celebrated as original.
but to your story suggestion, is it not vital that the story is in itself original in some way? that the writer use either brilliant imagery or an insightful metaphor, and so on.
for example, and i hate to use this, as its not a great example, but its the first i could think of;
dan brown's angels and demons compared to the da vinci cide. both are very similar, and one could argue that if angels and demons had reached a larger audience, the da vinci code would not have been as successful, due to the stark similarity between both books, and the unoriginal nature of angels and demons.
or you could look at poetry. most major poetic movements evolve from being original admiRABt an environment; (i know my timings off a bit here) from the romantic age, the metaphysical poets were born, bringing a different message, a differrent and in that age an original branch of poetry, and achieved success for it.
so therefore, originality becomes a valid criticism, as it becomes vital to keep the piece fresh to make it worth reading