A visual irritant. When a character ragdolls, his fingers are stretched out really making the deaths a bit comical/unimerssive. Im guessing most people noticed this subconsciously to some degree. Once you do realise whats going on however, its hard to not to notice it constantly after that.
Swapping them with a preset relaxed palms would make a world of diffrence. No need for full on finger physix or whatnot. Since at the current state they look a bit too 'ragdolly'.
This only happens when the model goes into ragdoll mode, usually when the character dies from explosion, or shot when crouching or standing. When the character is prone and gets shot, he does not go into ragdoll mode i assume, and makes a small prone-death animation, still grasping his weapon, with hands quite relaxed.
Since i didnt want to post pictures of dead people, i sketched on some screenshots to illustrate whats up.
{F19984} {F19985} {F19986} {F19987} {F19988} {F19989}