I made a poll. Let's settle this once and for all.
https://goo.gl/sSURBP
I didn't get a chance to play much this world because of real life shit, and although I haven't been able to fairly test out the current system I couldn't imagine it being a good thing. Personally I thought w9 had the perfect balance and not dying sounds completely retarded and against the core spirit of the game. I don't know why devs would even consider it, but that's my opinion. Permadeath was one of the main things that attracted me to this game and made playing it feel so epic. Not having permadeath completely kills my desire to play next world.