The Dave we first get introduced to (who I will call Dave Prime for the purposes of this post) in Homestuck goes on to become Alternate Future Dave, who then becomes Davesprite, who then becomes Davepetasprite^2.
I think it's pretty clear that prototyping is textually a continuation of the character's consciousness, it is not at all the same as death. Death in Homestuck is conclusion. This is the tragedy of godtiering: it locks in what's wrong with you, this is where you end, this is where you will stop growing*.
And now I'm gonna basically paraphrase Homestuck itself for the rest of this post:
Of course Davesprite and Dave are separate characters, but I actually want to ask you this: if the main timeline Dave isn't the one we get introduced to, is he still the "real" Dave? To the timeline, yes, Davesprite has a whole thing about it, but what about us the readers?
The timeline is bullshit, see. It's an entirely artificial thing, it's the longest stable time loop in all of multihistory created by LE, so why place any particular importance on it. And of course every story is artificial but that's the point, isn't it? Homestuck is artificial on many levels, what makes Dave Prime less Dave than the Dave we end up following or the Dave who ends up walking through the door?
That's actually a thing with Dave, right. Davepeta, and by extension Davesprite and Alternate Future Dave and Dave Prime, is the one who fulfills the prophecy**. And prophecies are also bullshit, but I don't think we can ignore how the Dave we first meet is also the one who ends up fulfilling his destined path... By becoming a different person, twice. And also becoming non-binary. I think that's important.
The truth is, there is no individual version of these characters who is more or less of them as any other. This is in fact the point. Dave and Davesprite and Davepeta are different characters, but they're also the same guy. In conclusion: Dave is the only main character who never dies in Homestuck.
*Especially since your dreamself is the one who continues on, not you. The dream bubbles are filled with the ghosts of people who died on their bed.
**Yes I'm taking postcanon into account here and if you don't like it I don't care.
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