I guess that's a bit comforting, knowing that the extreme agony doesn't last until the final moment. But man oh man, what a way to go. Why would you have felt pretentious or like a hipster for responding to the author of the piece in that way?
I think that the whole - shall we say - meme of claiming you have known something, especially knowing it first, or knowing it before a majority of people know about it, has become a trope and perhaps even one of the defining characteristics of "hipsterdom." It isn't something necessarily bad on its own but it's certainly an attribute that has been satirized with the rise of hipster culture, especially in regards to pop culture and music. So letting the author know I'm already aware of the problem he's talking about makes me feel hipster in that way. I think it's also important that I recognize that, while I may have already known about this issue (due to some news article I stumbled upon; couldn't even tell you how I found it, probably on some obscure subreddit somewhere), that still doesn't mean that people's ignorance isn't still a problem. I'm fascinated right now by grotesque things which is why it stuck with me. Also I believe the two self-immolaters I read about were among the youngest on record, 17 and 18 at the time.