I catch your drift. I always thought that wizarding duels and the death curse itself could’ve been far more interesting and exciting if, once successfully cast on someone, the curse will go on to kill the person…eventually. Like, you cast the spell, green flash or whatever, doesn’t matter. Then, soon afterwards but not immediately, something atrocious or unlucky would happen, health wise or not, that would kill the person. Which means the victim knows they were cursed, but they can still fight back, making it not a duel ending spell, but a mutually assured annihilation kind of nuclear option. So, wizards would have to strategically choose if and when to use it.

The toll on the body and mind of the curse user should have also been way steeper. Like, each curse should’ve made the user lose a finger, rot the skin, drive them to insanity, sink them into a manic or depressive crisis, lose eyes, go bald, etc. Reflecting the corresponding corruption of the soul. So that using the curse would have to be carefully considered by everyone, even the antagonists. Voldemort used the curse thousands of times and all he had to give in return was melatonin, keratine and cartilage.