Thank you for the comment.
I'm very glad that the tutorial was helpful. I had spent quite a bit of time on that, as it was very important to me that players not feel lost.
I tend to agree that death happens too quickly. Originally I had planned for the ship to take damage when hit, but I ended up simplifying things greatly since the initial design phase. Nearer to the end of development I was contemplating giving the ship some armor so it could take some hits as you suggested. Perhaps this feature deserves a revisit, along with some balancing.