But... death doesn't actually mean anything in Dark Souls. That's the whole point of the game. There are no costs to death in the game itself (save humanity, but you can recover it and it's easy to find). The only consequence to death is its effect on the player's patience.
Same here. Losing credits / reputation can all be easily grinded for "again" after all. The thought is that it "hurts" because you "lost" something.
Dark Souls is still on my "to play list" so I'm not sure how the mechanic really works, but I remember CR stating specifically that "losing things/souls/whatever" in Dark Souls was a good thing because it made the player feel that death meant something.
Personally mechanics that punish the player are kind of a red flag for me back from the Everquest days. Being conditioned to be risk averse and instead "work hard while staying as save as possible" in gaming is not really the best use of my free time imho. I was gonna make an exception and give Star Citizen at least a chance because of all the pent up Wing Commander / Freespace / Space Sim nostalgy ... but that was a few years ago before the project became this "neverending story".
If you go back to where you died in Dark Souls, you can reclaim your souls (which are the game's currency/level up points). All of them. Even if you die again before you get them back, every single enemy gives you souls when they die, and since they respawn, it really doesn't matter. There are no other consequences whatsoever to death. None. You lose absolutely nothing you can't get back in a few minutes.
All that happens if you die is you respawn at the last bonfire you rested at and all the enemies respawn. ****, it's more forgiving than reverting to checkpoint is in other games. You lose nothing but time, which plays into the game's story. Death is utterly meaningless. You can't lose unless you give up.
It's save scumming turned into a central aspect of gameplay.
That's in complete opposition to how SC has presented itself. It would mean that death in SC would return you and all your equipment and ship right back to your last save point as though nothing happened. If death is supposed to mean something, then Dark Souls is one of the worst possible examples to use. If CR is using it as an example, his community has either fundamentally misunderstood his intentions, or he hasn't played the game and knows nothing about it except that it's known to be hard.
I encourage you to play it. It's an excellent game.