pretty cocky for a new guy, innit?
“He’s dead, Cecil.”
No, acknowledgement of death does not equal an unhealthy fascination in unpleasant and disturbing subjects.
Morbid would be putting a sig block that describes in detail just how the person died, including how long it took, how much pain they were in, and whether or not they their family members were sad or happy they were gone.
Merely acknowledging death is not morbid.
I’m with Tuba. I don’t see the point. It might well be respectful or a tribute, as the OP says, but the dead poster won’t know. Treating posters with respect and showing appreciation for them while they’re alive means something; afterwards, not so much.
Trying to engage a deceased poster in an old thread is rare, and no one should be embarrassed by it. Changing the status has more potential to derail threads. “Did she die? How? When? Wasn’t she the one with 18 cats?” Or “Good riddance, I never liked him”. When we learn that we’ve lost someone, that’s the time to share memories. If someone passes and we don’t ever know, well, that’s how it goes. It happens in real life too.
Ha! Why did I know you’d so something like that, TriP? Couldn’t have been that almost hour you and I spent on the phone recently trying to correct my bolding problem, would it? 
Q
You never know if it’s me or the virus 
To me, it has nothing to do with showing respect or offering tribute or getting to know someone as a person. Knowing that the person who wrote a particular comment is dead would be good information for forming my response to it. It helps me understand better who my audience is going to be.