One of my DDXP DMs did the same thing. Mechanically, the rule was identical to the final one, except that life points weren't recovered when you got healed. We got a lot closer to dying than we should have (I was one shot away from death by kobold minion).
I second the comment about delegates, though; I was at a demo on Saturday, and the DM made mistakes that any of use with the preview rules sheet could use to prove him wrong. It was horrible--I could have DMed that game much better than he did.