Agreed, it's still too luck based really. I've been trying to make it less so in every patch since the original and it still is a high priority for the upcoming 1.2 patch too. Of course alongside more content and making the end game more interesting. I'm even considering nudging the numbers a bit so that it'd get more likely to get a "good event" the further you go without any crew members so it would balance it a bit more and make unlucky dead runs less likely.
The angel battles are indeed tough and require some luck too but the prize for success is top tier also. And maybe I should nerf the enemy diplomat a bit so it wouldn't be quite as deadly on a non upgraded diplomat at least.