Hjorimir
Adventurer
I get the point you're trying to make here, and I know a lot of this is largely a personal preference thing, but I have to ask how one can consider "player has input on whether their character is permanently dead or not" to be at odds with "player agency". Like, there's an argument to made that a PC's actions should have real consequences, but "death" is but one of great many consequences, and honestly it's one of the least interesting consequences possible, at least from a narrativist perspective. I would consider that a player having a role in deciding whether their own character's story is finished or not to be a pretty strong example of player agency, all things considered.
Again, I totally understand the other side of this, and I think it's a perfectly fine and valid way to approach the game, but it's obviously not an approach that suits everyone, and I don't think either one has the monopoly on the claim of best supporting player agency. There's pros and cons to either side; it's all a matter of preference.
I think it's fine to play with avoiding character death if that's what makes the game most fun for your table. For me, if you cannot die, most consequences are temporary at best. I think it leads to characters bumbling forward. I enjoy the game most when the PCs are forced to put a lot of thought into their actions because the consequences of failure have the potential to be extremely dire, but that's not for everybody. We all get different things out of these games we play and that's perfectly okay.