After having looked at the explanation in the RT thread, I'd say that you can go for this small function:

sub ERRORDIE {
    Log::Log4perl->get_logger->error_die(@_);
}
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Put that in a module, use where applicable and you should be set without much complaining from cow-orkers.

The fact is that you're trying to use the same hammer for very different nails, so you either need a different hammer (e.g. ERRORDIE above) or substitute the hammer on the fly (e.g. redefine LOGDIE/LOGCROAK/LOGEXIT). Personally, I'd leave LOGDIE its advertised semantic - i.e. raise a FATAL log message and exit with an error - and use a different function (e.g. ERRORDIE above) to do similar but different things.