You couldn’t have made my point better if you’d tried. Have you ever played poker without any sort of a wager? It completely undermines the game’s mechanics. Raising, bluffing and calling become zero risk activities and they cease to be meaningful parts of the game.
What is this timer you’re referring to? The game isn’t going to delete itself off your hard disk just because you can only play it for half an hour a day and it might take you a couple of weeks to explore a given part of it. Or are you saying that the game should cater better to people who require rapid gratification or else they quit whatever they’re doing? Because that’s not a very sympathetic argument.
Why are these two things mutually exclusive? Do you find it impossible to roleplay in any situation where you know your character will die? Because I find a character’s death is often the most interesting part of their story.
Anyway, this thread is absurdly long. I couldn’t care less if a “DIE? Y/N” option was added via the debug menu a la wizard mode, but optional death should never be part of the game proper.