Difference between killing and knocking out?

I know there’s technically there’s a few niche things, like knocking Minthara out- but does the game treat them as not having killed off?

I’m mostly asking because I had to knock out the owlbear cub- I teamed up with the 2 that were attacked by the owlbear, as my current tav would absolutely pit the two against each other to get rid of two potential problems (absolute cultists aren’t any good, and the Owlbear could get in the way if they stumble upon it)

Unfortunately, when I got the two killed, and killed the cub’s parents, the cutscene didn’t play where the cub eats it’s mother. I kinda felt bad so I knocked it out instead of killing it, but I don’t know if it’ll change anything