Ahh, I can’t read! That’s my bad, though I do think it feels riskier/gamble-y to lose a life regardless of your points. An all or nothing kinda deal which is thematic. I was able to rack up a lot of points and exploded like 6 times in a row with 0 “consequences”. But just my opinion, so not a bug!
And yeah, 3 cookies = 3 lives is more visually intuitive imo.