Are there a lot more people with allergies than there were back in the old days? Probably.
Are there people pretending to have an allergy? I know of at least one.
But, are people known to die because of peanut allergy? Absolutely. (And didn't a young girl die on a plane recently on BA, although not because of food she had on the plane but that she brought from elsewhere?).
My most personal bottom line is: the risk is there and if to avoid it completely it means I can't snack on the peanuts, I'm perfectly fine with that.