You know what? I don't think the show will (or should) yet address the fact that reactions to the deaths of SecUnits and the reactions to the deaths of humans are starkly different, even for the Preservationers.
I think this for two reasons: one, the nature of why that might be different sort of needs to get explored more. Do they not think of the other SecUnits as people (possible), or is it the helmet? See, most humans have a much easier time not attributing personhood or complexity if they can't see someone's face. It's why enemies in video games so often tend to be faceless. It's why certain fascist regimes throughout history have their secret police hide their faces. Because it is the goal to un-people them and make them Other. And that was clearly part of the design philosophy of SecUnits, so much so that people just don't know that there is, in fact, a face under that helmet. So it's easier to see a helmeted, unpersoned being die, especially if it has been openly attacking you first, rather than see a person whose face is exposed, and who you have perhaps talked to or even gotten to know, die, even under similar circumstances.
But there are definitely deeper questions about the personhood of constructs in general that need to be explored. But before PresAux can truly unpack their unconscious depersonization of SecUnits, Murderbot has to unpack its own depersonization of itself and other constructs.
I don't think that Murederbot considers itself a person yet. I don't think it's sad that other SecUnits die, because it actually, secretly, agrees with what Gurathin has been saying: SecUnits aren't people, they're equipment. It is equipment, and all these new emotions, the empathy, the kindness that has been laced through it by these people, these are viruses. It's not a sign of personal growth, because it's not a person! It has so many emotions and thoughts and perceptions, and the best way it's found so far to understand them is filtered through shows. But it has yet to understand that all these things are signs that it is, and has always been, a person. Honestly, given what's just happened at the end of episode 9, I think Gurathin's reevaluating his opinions on Muderbot's personhood far sooner than Murderbot is.
It has to go on its journey of self-discovery before it can really embrace that it is, in fact, a person. Not equipment, not just a thing, but a PERSON. And only when it confronts that, and its own callous opinions of its death and the deaths of other SecUnits, will it really be able to grapple with the disparity and the prejudice inherent in the way SecUnit deaths are treated.
It's very likely that, if it leaves at the end of the season, PresAux grapple with this concept and their reactions to the various deaths they witnessed on their own. After all, they are emotionally intelligent people who will likely be asking themselves why it left them. We may have a subplot of them working through their own prejudices toward constructs, and the flaws in Preservation thinking about bots and constructs (in the books, at least, very paternalistic). I would really like to see them grapple with that on their own, and Murderbot grapple with it on its own, in the way that it reluctantly grapples with all large, emotional concepts. I would like them to come back together both in different places, and on different and better terms. But I think they would still have growing to do, because it's one thing to deconstruct your own prejudices in a bubble, but ideally that deconstruction should be informed by the opinions and thoughts of people within the group you were prejudiced against, so I would imagine they would still have plenty of mutual character growth to go once it rejoins them.
But that's not something that can be grappled with in one episode. That is a LONG arc, likely a parallel arc for next season, which may well continue beyond season 2, if we get lucky enought to get seasons 3+ (given Apple's track record, I would be surprised if we don't at least get season 2; they tend to prefer giving their shows room to grow, and MB has stayed in the top 5 viewed shows for the entire season, so it's not like it's performing poorly by their metrics).
I see season 2--assuming it's some remix of 'Artificial Condition', 'Rogue Protocol', and original material--as the season that really grapples with the nature and personhood of constructs. Season 1 set up the characters and the larger world, as well as the stakes. Season 2 can, hopefully, move forward with some of the deeper topics at play.
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