Caleb, it would seem that you are correct.
As for the dying, just because the pattern of him being dead is erased doesn't mean it didn't happen. If I wrote up this post and then backspaced all of it it doesn't mean I never wrote it. It just means the only people who know about it are the ones who saw what I typed before it was deleted. Thats how I look at it anyway.
BTW - does anyone remember why we assume there is some sort of connection between the person blowing the horn and the horn itself?
Clutching the blanket tightly around him, he had to swallow before he could say, "I remember, Mother."
She seemed to relax, just a little, and Mat shrugged his shoulders queasily. He felt as if he had just been allowed to lift them off a chopping block.
"Good. That is good, Mat." She sat back down slowly, studying him. "Do you know that you are linked to the Horn?" He mouthed the word "linked" silently, shocked, and she nodded. "I did not think you knew. You were first to blow the Horn of Valere after it was found. For you, it will summon dead heroes back from the grave. For anyone else, it is only a horn – so long as you live."
He took a deep breath. "So long as I live," he said in a dull voice, and the Amyrlin nodded. "You could have let me die." She nodded again. "Then you could have had anyone you want blow it, and it would have worked for them." Another nod. "Blood and ashes! You mean me to blow it for you. When the Last Battle comes, you mean me to call heroes back from the grave to fight the Dark One for you. Blood and bloody ashes!"
Interview: Apr, 2012
Afternoon Tea with Brandon Sanderson - Luckers (Paraphrased)
Luckers
In The Great Hunt Ishamael has no knowledge that Mat sounded the Horn, and thinks Rand did. Later on though, a Fade refers to Mat as the Hornsounder. How did he know?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
LUCKERS
*we talked about this for a while, and I didn’t take any notes on that part of the conversation (so it was nothing big) we dropped back into interesting stuff a bit later and I resumed note taking*
BRANDON SANDERSON
I will say that, in the course of writing A Memory of Light, I learned some very interesting things that went against some strong preconceptions I had about the Horn. Some of the ideas I had, about how it worked, turned out to be incorrect.