Windu dying to Palpy isn't a cheap way to die at all. The battle is epic as we are about to see. I think Yoda would b1tch slap Windu quite easily if you wanted that type of ending, and then Sam Jackson would be complaining that he didn't even last 2 minutes before dying. At least dying to palpy, he put up a really good fight.
Windu's Vapaad of course means that he stands a better chance vs Palpy then Yoda does. We will see that. Windu does better vs palpy then Yoda does. However, if Windu was to fight Yoda, his Vapaad wouldn't do anything, and he would be dead.
If Windu fought Yoda, he would die faster then Sam Jackson did in True Romance...