I disagree, actually. At least from my perspective:
I was playing the other day and specifically thought to myself how much
less I cared about survival than in a particular other game - that I wasn't playing with caution and care, as I would do in that other game, but that I was being (more) aggressive (than usual) and taking risks which neither I nor my in-universe character would sanction.
And that other CMDRs around me were behaving in exactly the same immersion-breaking, world-bending way, and that it is a real shame, and possibly has ramifications on the way things have to be balanced.
The other game in question
is unusual. (plug) I've
never cared so much about staying alive in a computer game as I have in
Sir(/Madam), You Are Being Hunted*. (/plug) Plenty of people don't, and play it as a die-and-respawn FPS, but that game made me play personally, to survive, and feel a lot was at stake. And Elite doesn't, nor do other games which are ostensibly about personal survival (oh, I dunno, any RPG or Rogue-like), or even about the psychotic survival of assets without heed to death (like EvE and other MMOs.)
Hey ho. I'm glad other people are feeling more immersed in the survival aspect, and I suppose there is a justification to take personal risks due to our perfect escape capsules.
*Kay Johnston here, if anyone's a SYABH regular.