I think that permadeath is not as bad as it seems if the game is properly balanced. For example, I remember playing Super Mario Land on the Game Boy before ~ 25

I think that permadeath is not as bad as it seems if the game is properly balanced. For example, I remember playing Super Mario Land on the Game Boy before ~ 25 years (I was 10). When I first played it, I couldn't pass the first level, but after a couple of times I was able to move to the second, third etc. Each time I played it I felt that I was better at passing the levels (knowing when to jump, when each enemy will approach etc) and I almost universally felt that I acomplished something (i.e "oh wow I reached the Boss of the first three levels"). I never felt frustrated because I lost because I knew that next time I play I'll probably do better; even if I didn't make it further away I'd improve my playthrough of the previous stages. Now, this "play/learn, lose, repeat" lasted (IIRC) for about 1-2 months until I finished the game. I then continued playing it for a little more time to discover more secrets and/or improve my score. The thing is that I never was angry that I needed to repeat these stages because I had learn that the game was fair (balanced). That was also the case for some (not all) arcade games I remember like Shinobi, Double Dragon, Snow Brows, Bubble Bubble etc; you needed to play them some times to discover their secrets and become better and then you'd be able to reach further and further with a single credit (and even finish them). This experience was contrary to what I felt when I played games that were not properly balanced (which felt non-fair to me then). For example, I remember that while I played Castlevania on the game boy I was always frustrated, I had reach the final stage but I couldn't pass some obstacles; and if I could was by pure luck. It was like dropping a coin 10 times and needing to get heads in all 10 times. One time after many hours of trying I had reached the final boss but I was killed before actually seeing anything on how he attacks etc. I was so frustrated that I thrown the Gameboy at the floor and broken it! The game was so unfair! TL;DR: If the game has good gameplay and is properly balanced then repeating stages is not bad; not many games are properly balanced though :/