However, this particular scene wasn't related to the "if you're dead, you never existed" conceit. The idea was that the wreckage was blocking the landing path for other ships, which were running out of fuel. The movie wanted to communicate a difficult choice: attempt to save one pilot, possibly already dead, and risk losing a significant part of the carrier's fighter wing in the process (which, in turn, could endanger a lot of lives). The reason this didn't work, of course, is that pushing the fighter off the deck didn't look like it was a significantly more time-consuming process than pushing it into the hangar; or it could be pushed to the side of the deck, where it would not get in the way of landing fighters - it certainly didn't seem big enough to block the entire path. And then there's the question of emergency rescue teams - like, didn't they have any? Any modern carrier will have people standing by to rescue a pilot from a damaged fighter coming in to land, so what was the story here?
The artificial gravity didn't help, although it's probably only a problem for non-fans, who tend to stop at the "it's silly to have things fall off in space" level of analysis. From the fan perspective, it does make sense that the ship's artificial gravity field extends all the way to the edge of the ship and maybe even a bit beyond (this would also explain that ridiculous, ridiculous "drop" that fighters go through on take-off). But understandable or not, it still looks silly.