It’s interesting to me that in this case, the debauchery really was a cause of the deaths. Port Royal was a terrible place to build, nothing but hot, water-logged sand. But the British were so focused on using it to launch pirate raids against Spanish and other Catholic settlements, they settled their anyway. The piracy actually died down before 1692, but was replaced by slave trading. Even with a lesser need for such immediate proximity to the sea, the populace continued to focus on the narrow, water-logged spit of land for the easy access to the rum brought there in vast quantities.
Anyone less interested in rum and nefarious trade would have settled in Kingston or Spanish Town (named because that’s where the Spanish had settled, of course), where the land was far better.
Best answer on the thread so far.
Bad location and bad logistics.