Nobody's out to get you personally. They want your shit. Or they want you out of their way on their quest for more shit. Either giving them your shit or getting out of the way will cease you being a perceived threat towards them. In your examples the drug lord/person being promoted isn't targeting their competition personally (as a person), just whomever happens to be the competition. If nobody steps up as a competitor, they have no reason to kill (except as a threat to chill would-be competitors out of the game).

Outside of a few very niche cases of psychotic mental illness, nobody wants to kill. It's so much effort even predators in the wild tend to leave each other alone in favor of prey that won't fight back and maybe kill/injure them. It's why black bears can be scared off and grizzlies/polar bears can't. If you can prove yourself enough of a threat, the animal is going to fuck off to live another day.