It's like the old Ninja Warrior show in Japan. No one ever made it, and once someone did, they made it harder. There is something comforting for some about seeing the effort. For others, they thought it was stupid. Those that thought it was stupid remade it. The American version is meant to be conquered. Now the question is who can do it the fastest. Some people find comfort in this style of show.
Yeah, I'm definitely the kind of person who sees a challenge designed to be unbeatable and asks, "Okay so...what's the point? The conclusion is foregone." At least with
Kobayashi Maru-type scenarios, there's a
point to it being unbeatable: to teach a lesson, namely, that sometimes there are scenarios which do not have good solutions, so you must pick which bad consequence you are willing to deal with, or (as Kirk's cheating did) try to force a "third option" that transcends the limitations of the dilemma.
It's weird to me (and I am going to assume most players) that losing a character means you will quit the game for good.
And I think you should heavily re-evaluate that assumption. I've personally seen it drive people away from the hobby in general. Not just that campaign, not just D&D,
all TTRPGs. "Oh. I guess this just really isn't for me. Oh well, moving on."
"Hard" gaming has its fans (Elden Ring proves that), but it's
at best a niche (Minecraft having more than 10x the sales of Elden Ring proves
that.) Fans of old-school D&D styles of play absolutely should not be ignored nor denigrated. Their preferences should not be treated as some pointless, deprecated thing--they are vibrant and worthy parts of the melange that is D&D. But let us not pretend that there's some vast silent majority that adores such things. There is no evidence of such a thing, and
plenty of evidence to the contrary. The casuals outnumber the hardcore--and it's not even close.
That they do is no excuse for how poorly 5e actually supports such styles. Which is one (of several) reasons why I advocate for design things I do, like "zero levels" and harder difficulty options and built-in support for survival challenges and pure no-/low-magic gaming. 5e actively courted such fans, and then let them down. That's one of the most disappointing things about it.