Pointless and Unsastisfying? Please. I LOVE this death. It's awesome in my regard. It's sad and the climax leading up to it wasn't too shabby either. The thumbs-up was also pretty cool. Because it's like Sarah said earlier, "The Terminator would be the ultimate father." Indeed he would. I would give anything to see that when my dad saved my life and was about to accept his fate just gave a thumbs-up. That'd be the best goddamn father that ever existed!
That being said I prefer to pretend that Terminator 3 doesn't exist. So if we exclude the third one (what third one?) this really does have some points.