Ahhh, OK, I understand your reasoning. You created a dangerous world, of course a price must be paid to escape :) It was definitely bad for morale, but does make sense.
Really I don't have a leg to stand on in terms of difficulty/unfairness complaints after I subjected everyone to Haroldry last year lol. Some of the troops had ungodly dodge that really made the fights a slog, I didn't use TP or an equivalent at all, and the skillsets I set up were rudimentary (especially compared to what you built here).