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I can't speak for everyone, because party size and composition are going to make a difference, but the group that I am DMing AoA for is totally reliant on the party's Forensic Investigator/Medic's ability to keep the martial characters from going down during combat.
My party uses in-combat healing all the time. The druid is particularly fond of vital beacon, since it lasts an entire day. He casts it each morning as part of his daily preparations and the party can heal themselves using him whenever they need (he can also heal them on his turn if they need their actions for something else).
The party i was the GM during all the AP, it was vital to them having a dedicated combat healer, in their case a Cleric
It is essential to have some as an option. But for any group that is tactically minded it is far from essential and becomes less and less important as levels pass.
If party members have no class based healing options, don't have other sources of in combat healing AND don't invest in any healing consumables / items... then yeah they will suffer because sometimes crits need to be negated and PC's need to be gotten up before they bleed out.
But a dedicated healer is far from necessary.
My group had a Cleric nearly 100% dedicated to healing.
Early game, he felt pretty required. Though I don't know how much of this is due to AoA and how much is due to the fact that all of us were knew to 2e and several players were still breaking out of 1e habits (Habits that 2e punishes).
The later the game got, the less a dedicated healer felt needed (With the exception of 1 chapter in the later books. He still healed, but it got to the point where he was healing for the sake of healing and not because healing was actually needed.
Weeps uncontrollably....
We are about to start this campaign in the next few weeks, apart from me, everyone is "newbies" in Pathfinder 2, (very bad, one shot...), apart from a champion not yet defined on which trend, we won't have any healers focused, I I have already determined and will go from Thaumaturge, I intend to help by getting the feat regarding scrolls, buy them whenever possible. Is it viable for survival? How long/books should it work? Grateful!
We are about to start this campaign in the next few weeks, apart from me, everyone is "newbies" in Pathfinder 2, (very bad, one shot...), apart from a champion not yet defined on which trend, we won't have any healers focused, I I have already determined and will go from Thaumaturge, I intend to help by getting the feat regarding scrolls, buy them whenever possible. Is it viable for survival? How long/books should it work? Grateful!
Combats in Age of Ashes (especially early on) are rather tough, so in-combat healing is much more likely to be needed than in PF1. However, there are more options than just a cleric using Divine Font for heal. A caster with the occult list can cast soothe. An alchemist, or an investigator with the Alchemical Sciences methodology, can create elixirs of life during their daily preparations (or Quick Alchemy/Quick Tincture) for additional healing as well.
You may also want someone that's good in the Medicine skill and the Battle Medicine skill feat.
In combat healing or even someone with the medic feats definitely changes things a lot. Having someone that can do major healing in battle allows the party to stay up through combats and really soften some of the heavy blows that monsters can do.
Even if your martial character gets hit for half their hit points in a round, if they can get healed up more then half of that before the next round that changes their tactics from having to play it safe to staying in for that extra swing for a potential Crit.