Important disclaimer: I do not use Emacs, and I won't until ErgoEmacs is the default UI. CUA or die.
Let's say that CUA, being a consolidation and standardization of previous software' keybindings, set a pattern replicated by lots of other software. But so did Emacs: there's a lot of software that, for example, binds C-n to "next item" and C-p to "previous item". Since you've brought up death, is that the right hill to die on? :)