For myself, I favor the same approach as Yaarel, but I also try to stay conscious of the party I'm in and what it is they're looking for. Different people prefer different things for different reasons, right? Some people are highly risk-averse in life and play D&D in part as a way of escaping that aversion, so for them death, danger, and surprises are great. Some people are highly risk-averse in life and play D&D much as they live life: risk-averse. For them, the Tomb of Horrors is just a bad choice. Some people have seriously high-stress careers in life and play D&D as a way of escaping that, so for them a pressure cooker adventure might not be my best choice. Some have stressful lives and play D&D as a way of rehearsing all that stress and changing some of its outcomes to where they tackle and clobber their imaginary foes in a way they wish they could clobber certain co-workers. For them, combat-heavy adventures with lots of blood work great.
Naturally, only so much DM calibration to the party is possible when you've got six or seven players each with a very different personality, but usually when it's a bunch of longtime friends all around a table, there's some kind of temperamental consensus that I can find.