For my part,I do feel like 5E is too "easy" if you use the challenge rules as designed. It is rare for even a regular Deadly encounter to provide a sense of peril, in my experience. And I'm a RBDM. I hit downed PCs all the time if it makes sense for the enemy. Anyway, I usually have to use Deadly+ encounters if I want players to be worried. This is especially true 5th level and higher.
So what are you here to argue over? The thread is literally about preference and what feels best.
I would not. If the players always win, and my worldbuilding is fair, so be it. But from a vibes perspective I think over time an eternal string of victories would start to feel a little "off" to me.
So you want the illusion that death could happen... but don't care if it is ever actually realized or not. What makes your PC's worry... being low on hit points? Powerful attacks? An AC that is hard to hit?
Which circles me back around to my first response to you on this. It takes a lot more for me to challenge the players than in past editions. If it takes a lot more to challenge them, the default lethality is significantly lower.
As long as there is a sense of tension and the players are engaged, I don't particularly care how the fight turns out. Whatever happens, there will be some new state of affairs to build on,which is the thing i love about GMing.
In D&D, it is mostly about (rapidly) dwindling resources including hit points. Players get nervous when their hit points and spell.slots seem to be running out and the bad guys seem to still be fresh and/or numerous.
The disconnect between those discussions and the poll options connected to the OP demonstrates why people say that the game needs to be the thing that is more deadly with the PC's being puled lower on the super hero scale. Unfortunately that lack of support from the game ensures that It's difficult for GM's to even to talk about with a lot of players because it gets reframed & mired in the idea that the mere thought is about killing the PCs more often. Worse still is that even if the players agree to let the GM try the GM's crazy idea those players can still ensure the attempt fails in blatantly unfun ways by refusing to adapt & pointing to the obvious results of continuing to play a more deadly game as if they are still playing the role of kryptonian with a sword/wand.
Life, is like a sandbox Dungeons and Dragons game. The characters apply significance to the events that happen within it and build stories out of them. Stories don't exist, storytellers do.
I came close to killing off 2 when they were level 19. Purple worm variants with stun attacks burrowing their way to the PCs demise was a lucky roll of the die away.
