the protagonist wins, but probably gets shot

In a looooong-ago post, the Rejecter complained about the "Mid-Life Crisis Thriller" (read her blog if you haven't yet!).

She describes the Mid-Life Crisis Thriller as: 

"Open with a guy being chased by a killer and then killed.  Move into Chapter 1, a domestic scene, until the protagonist (who usually has a similar job to the author's) gets tied to the killed person in some way and decides to solve the crime or gets thrown into some conspiracy because of a package of information sent to them by the dead person.  Throw in some attempts on the protagonist's life, maybe a love triangle, and end somewhere dramatic or symbolic (a church, a graveyard, or the original murder site) with the protagonist facing off against the killer.  The protagonist wins, but probably gets shot.  End with a wrap-up three months later and try to end on a mysterious letter or the announcement that someone's pregnant  There, done."

She says that these stories (almost?) never get accepted.  But I don't really see a huge problem with this plot!  Yes, these are the bones for a pretty tried-and-true thriller.  But I'm not sure that tried-and-true has to mean hackneyed.  

I'm not saying that the manuscripts she's seeing deserve to be picked up- from the way she talks about them, I doubt they're well executed or publishable.  I'm just saying- aren't some of these tropes (the romantic subplot, the ordinary person turned extraordinary hero, the final, triumphant face-off) what make a story into a thriller?  Wouldn't losing these tropes mean losing the thriller form altogether?