Estate taxes make a lot more sense. Heirs don’t need to get free billions of dollars for doing nothing and I have no problems with taxing dead people.
The free step-up in basis at death makes no sense for the very wealthy. The rule originates from the difficulty in determining the basis of assets of dead people. The very wealthy have accountants that track this.
Warren Buffett can pay capital-gains tax AND estate tax.
That is a far cry from taxing unrealized gains as income which is what a lot of people seem to want to do.