Death/healing: To me, the issue isn't that there's a death mechanic, it's that you're instantly thrust into "epic" encounters that can easily kill you. For example, should you happen to pick the lock on the crypt when you first meet Shadowheart and encounter the skeletons, rather them being generic skeletons with like 8 hp each, they can all cast spells or have a ton of hp. Even if you gather all four companions somebody could go down easily just with one magic missile barrage. Besides that encounter, there's the goblins. Back when I played PnP, goblins were another starter monster that you fought when 1st or 2nd level. Unless you fought like 20 at once, they weren't much of a threat as they couldn't hit the broad side of a bar and fell pretty easily. Now they're super buff and have things like fire arrows and bombs to ruin your day. Tone things down a little and death will be less of a problem.
Another issue with death is that the AI always seems to pick out the softest target in the group, downs them and keeps pounding on them until they're dead. Ok, after seeing Gale fire off some magic missiles, maybe they target him but why right off the bat? How do they know he's a spell caster, just because he's got a robe and a walking staff? I'd think they'd aim first for the people up front with the big weapons who are hewing their comrades down. Once they've downed someone, why keep targeting them? They're no longer a threat at that point, take out someone who is.
If they adjusted the encounters a little and adjusted the AI a little, I think we'd find the whole healing and some of the issues with resting solved. I wouldn't feel the need to go all in with offensive spells (and certainly wouldn't be expending a lot of healing spells) if the monsters targeted the tank in the group rather than constantly knocking out the mage/warlock.
Resting: Maybe some of this will be sorted out once the full game is released. Right now the pacing of using your mind powers, interacting with companions requires you to long rest. With as compressed as it feels right now in EA, I feel you need to rest after every encounter just to make progression in those areas. Maybe in actual play that'll be spread out and I won't feel compelled to rest all the time. Solasta puts in some limits on resting like needing a safe place (for short rests there can't be enemies too close by and long rests require a specific camp area). It also tends to yell at you if you try to long rest too soon, but does let you override it if needed. However, you also need to lug around a lot of food (or have spell casters who can conjure it up) as each time you long rest you use up a ration.
