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Included in the over 20 hours of paizo gencon twitch streams, was the reasoning behind the changes in the death system.
The main issue as seen by the dev team was that dying was not even across the levels. that the threat of death was greater at higher level than it was at lower levels, which I think is in fact a positive not a negative.
1. that characters have a been chance of dying at high level is good thing. first is that it's realistic. if you were a mercenary by trade, you would be way more afraid if your opponents were spec operation operators versus some wet behind the ears gang members. an increase in your opponent skill level creates an increased risk for yourself as it should.
2. it gives high level meaning besides more power. high level also means greater stakes, the character life is on the line. you should absolutely be more fearful that failure against an adult dragon is likely to mean death, while you might fell you could walk from a failure against a goblin with your life intact.
3. I like many of the changes in the game, as it's brings about a more even experience, however I believe there is a line where the game becomes too board gamey where the human emotions is lost you abstraction and longer becomes heroic fantasy experience. the fear of death should not be equal. I should not have the same fear fighting a goblin as I do dragon or tarasque. The fact that a dragon or tarasque can end my life the lower my hit points get is apart of the role playing drama and experience of being a hero fighting a dragon.
Now it could be, that because I grew up playing second edition that my views on death is skewed and well as what is expected of a role playing game, but I can't imagine having the a o level creature posing the same risk of death as a adult red dragon or tarasque a positive.