there are actually a lot of ways to heal or avoid/minimize damage...trouble is finding them...or finding the right combos to use them. I mean, with my 1 healing whetstone I can easily heal 100+ per turn from turn 3 onwards in my current setup.
I feel, personally, that damage scaling is the bigger factor. I'd love to see some more of that. More ways to get rage maybe, more smithys definitely...that kind of thing...