absolute trash. my starting squad died on the first battle, which deleted them and essentially bricked the game because i now had not enough gold to hire new ones.
I'm not a fan of permadeath either. The game is mostly idle, and a lot of time is invested in the heroes. Only to lose all that because you were not cautious enough? (Didn't happen to me — I'm very cautious.)
That said, if it happens right at the start, you didn't lose much. Just click "Restart game" in the settings.