I wonder if most people you talk to are younger players. Why not when creating a new game you get a prompt for normal game mode or trainer wings (instead of wheels). And in Trainer wing mode those pesky birds are turned off on the starting planet. Usually in a game the starting area is fairly easy, even MMOs have this so players can get a handle on the basics without dying all the time and they give up. This way younger players who love a challenge can still experience the game as its meant to be and those older or more prefers to have things a little slower paced or are casual players with short time to play; can learn how to play the game without having to restart a lot because dying and spawning has you going backwards (1 vudu and large debt) so you may as well start completely a fresh. So i would even in the beginning make death a complete restart anyway. Its only later on when you have brought things and have i guess forged contacts and explored a lot of areas etc that you do want to claw your way back again. Especially if you have money banked for so such an event.
Viewing post in Little bit of feedback so far..
Yeh, your certainly right about that: when you die in the beginning you might as well restart. I am very likely going to make the birds easier (as are other things) while you have "beginner's luck" by making it so they rarely do serious damage (just scratch damage). It also just thought of the idea that maybe in the beginning your damage & injuries should be automatically removed when you die. Maybe I can make this into a more plausible game thing: e.g. you get an insurance item at the start of the game that will pay for all damage etc. when you die for a couple of times...or something like that.