How does it feel like cheating? A proper RPG that forces you to start over on every death after 15 hours would be terrible, it's not an arcade game.
See my -1 karma point? A while ago I made a topic asking if anybody else played Underrail permadeath. Guy called me a dumb no-life with too much time and neg-repped me. It's funny how in modern day video game culture it became not only accepted but actually a norm to be immortal in a game. If you chose not to play this way and express your distaste you are likely to get mocked, sometimes even seen as a threat.
Fact remains, in most games today - you cannot die. Period. You either respawn or magically go back in time moments before shit happened. What character you play, how you play it, the choices you make, they don't really mean much because whatever you do there are no consequences and in the end you'll make it anyway even if you're a casual gamer (nothing wrong with it) that doesn't bother to learn the game mechanics.
If permadeath is optional, I have no problem with that. I just don't understand the concept of being able to save the game somehow makes it too easy. I like a game to be challenging, not punishing. Challenging, for me, is that I'll have to use different tactics, better equipment, and come back when I'm stronger to defeat the enemy. The challenge is that the game will not let you progress until you've bested it. Punishing is where a game forces you to start the game over when you die, meaning that I just played 15 hours of a video game to have it be all a waste of time. That just feels like work, it feels like the game is trying to emulate the consequences of real life actions too much and I feel like that defeats the purpose of playing a video game.
Again, I have no problem with it being optional, but the implication that I'm a casual or have no desire for challenge because I find it completely unappealing to lose all my character and game progress is somewhat insulting. Even if that wasn't the intention. This is the same thing I hear across the board from fans of permadeath, for MMORPGs they call you a care bear. I can imagine how you feel when someone ridicules you for your preference.