Death is a personal subject. I'm reluctant to categorise people's reactions to it particularly rigidly.
To treat death lightly/cavalierly/humourously is often an important mechanism for people to cope with or even bring themselves to think about the subject. Ghoul pools are a particularly fatalistic game, but I am not sure they are wholly callous.
Having participated in them in the past, I can tell you that you take greater note of death for the period of the game. And it does make you think - whereas our normal reaction to someone famous dying is "that's sad" and quickly move on, a ghoul pooler thinks "yes, they were on my list!". The follow-up pang of shame underlines how unimportant the deaths of strangers are, in a way that normally we would never consider.
And when the time comes to tally things at the end of the year, I doubt there is anybody who doesn't ruminate on the sheer randomness of some of the results. People who seem sure to die stagger on for another 12 months, whilst others are struck down out of nowhere. Drafters go from last to first on the basis of one left-field pick.
Adding up the numbers encourages you to reflect on the impermanence of life, the relative (un)importance of death, and perhaps question what you've done with the last year yourself. After all, if you were famous, who knows? Someone might be scoring 70 points on you next year.