Sacrosanct
Legend
I disagree.
The 1e modules were originally designed for tournaments. But they were sold to the public, people bought them, and they greatly influenced how the game was played.
I am proposing that the general play style in 1e was more lethal. How the game is played has as much influence on lethality as the actual rules.
You can disagree, but what I'm arguing is objective. Those tourney modules were designed specifically to be extra deadly than how the game was designed to be played at home. That's an objective fact. It's also an objective fact that 2e was designed for players to use all of the old 1e material (including modules) to be played. So at the very least, if you're using those modules as a reason why 1e was deadlier, then the very same thing applies to 2e because 2e was designed intentionally to use them.