Enemy criticals are a nightmare.
I would agree if crits were ever a real threat. The enemies have such low luck they can NEVER crit, and it's not a question of if you will crit them by endgame, but when. I could write a rant about the problems with criticals on this game. I may do so if you want.

The part I used to hate more was when you'd have blocked an enemy path with one of your characters. You've put them them more to slow the enemy than to cut them down. Your unit then proceeds to do a critical, allowing another enemy to attack that character, killing them. So, so frustrating.
And yes, I know very well about that situation of blocking units. It only ever happens when I'm training units... it knows.
I think the game is more fun when you don't become so protective of your characters. Like you said, you're no longer restarting every level when some random character like Renault dies. I originally felt keeping them alive was a self-imposed challenge probably because the real challenge was not giving up in frustration
Exactly, you're forced to learn from your mistakes and move on, and there's a chance that even if you do everything right the game will just decide you aren't worthy and the RNG will destroy you. Now, typically I HATE that in strategy games, but it's nice to go back to a luck-reliant strategy game, because you never know what's going to happen. I have to learn and adapt to the situation the RNG throws at me, and I like how it mixes it up. Now, is it a good idea mechanically? I think not, but it can be fun and exciting and sometimes I prefer that.