they just needed Angel's blood to seal the portal? So, like a bad hangnail would've worked instead of a coupe de grace?

As I recall, it was the stabbination with the magic sword that stopped the invasion of demon hordes (or whatever, I'm a little fuzzy on which Apocalypse is which) and incidentally sucked Angel to Hell. I'm not sure if the idea of a portal was part of it at that stage.

I don't see how there are now two deads for a vampire.

I'm pretty sure in Joss' mind the only reason that moment is important narratively is because Buffy killed Angel.

Hmmm, I hadn't realized that so many people read that scene as Buffy giving Angel a slight shove through an interdimensional doorway on the tip of her sword.

In fairness to that point of view, I've always felt that Joss bringing Angel back with the barest bit of handwavium was his bullshittiest move. (In a tight race on BtVS with the Miracle Snow of Amends, Summers Blood and Xander called up a Broadway apocalypse.) So maybe Joss didn't think Angel was Mostly Dead?

But if I buy that Buffy didn't kill Angel then that would lower my estimation of the story considerably. Sort of to the level of "Wesley was willing to shoot his Dad to death. But it was a robot." Hence a takeback, weakass storytelling. I really don't give a shit that Buffy was willing to kill Angel. Xander and Giles were willing to kill Angel but they didn't.

I hadn't realized that so many people read that scene as Buffy giving Angel a slight shove through an interdimensional doorway on the tip of her sword.

I give you a dollar if you're actually talking about anyone here. Do you take Paypal?

She stabbed the man she loved in the gut, used his blood to seal a portal shoved him into a hell dimension to suffer for hundreds of years. That is not trivial, and to many, perhaps worse than a relatively quick death.

So when you're fair to "that point of view", I wonder which one you're talking about.

I wouldn't presume to know what was going through Joss' mind, but I certainly never got the impression we were meant to think Angel was actually dead. Nor did the people I was discussing Buffy with at the time, so far as I can recall.

Buffy knew she was sending Angel to Hell after his soul was restored to him, and had no idea that the First Evil or Powers That Be (whichever it was) would spring him after "only" about a century of subjective torture. I think that has as much impact on her story as killing him would have.

She stabbed the man she loved in the gut, used his blood to seal a portal shoved him into a hell dimension to suffer for hundreds of years.

That may have been what happened, but that's not what she thought was happening. She thought she killed him. Did he have to go through the portal to seal it? Could she have cut his hand as Doc did to Dawn? Then realized that Willow's spell had restored his soul and jerked him back from the portal? Would that have worked?

She knew she was sending him to Hell. She assumed that was the same as killing him.

but that's not what she thought was happening

So? What does that have to do with trivialising how other people see it?

I guess that would be close to Joss' answer if it was a direct question:

Q: Did Buffy kill Angel in Becoming?

A: She thought she was.

That really puts it on the same plane as Wesley killing robo-Dad.

That really puts it on the same plane as Wesley killing robo-Dad.

Did that drive Mr. Wyndham Price insane? Did Wesley suffer the grief and guilt for an extended period?

So? What does that have to do with trivialising how other people see it?

I'm talking about my estimation of the narrative. If anything I'm accepting your interpretation of what happened and lowering my critical sense of Becoming. I think it's shittier storytelling if she doesn't kill him.

But then I think that killing off characters and reviving them is cheap and manipulative. It's what Ebert's Book of Movie Cliches calls a Disney Death. Oh no, Balloo the Bear is dead. Just kidding! Happy ending! Oh no, Trusty got runned over and is gone to that heavenly choir. Just kidding! (Disney does periodically really kill off characters like Bambi's mom, Ray the firefly and the Lion King, but they've earned the trope-name.)