I dunno. I mean, I understand the frustration of poor rolls (I'm well known to be a notoriously low roller, IRL - I just played a 6 session Delta Green game in which I succeeded at no roll at all, the whole game - that's worse than any d20 game I've ever played!) but I think people overestimate the consequences of failure in D&D. Sure, it's possible for failure to result in death, but most of the time, all failure does is add some complication to the story. Interesting things happen.
You'll find that in *my* games, anyway. Maybe there are a lot meaner DMs out there than me.