>>>A young person with a high income and a young family can use life insurance as a way of cushioning the shock of an unexpected early death.
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>Yes. And as that person ages, their premium boosts to cover the increasing incidence of morbidity/mortality in their age group. Meanwhile the sensible insurer has been investing some of the annual surplus to cover a predictable eventual payout.
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Actually, that's not what usually happens.
The cost to the family survivors of sudden death decreases with age, since the present value of the future earning stream lessens with age.
Smart insureds reduce their death benefits as they age.
Some insurers offer decreasing term policies, where premiums remain level but death benefits decrease.
They also make sense to a lot of people.

I might have told this story here but it bears repeating
I was once in a position where I had to discuss the merits/demerits of a list of potential employees from an acquired company with representatives of Merrill Lynch who would decide which employees to take on board.
On the list was a 40 year man with a young family who had been recently diagnosed with what was then an incurable illness and would almost certainly not live more than a year.
I was ethically bound to disclose that.
When I did, without hesitating, the Merrill Lynch rep said "He's first on our list."

In that case, Merrill was putting up its own money, not someone else's, and that was one of the classiest things I came across during my corporate years.