Depends on the game, IMO. If you're using reality to keep your PCs under control, then random crap DOES happen and the riskier their actions the nastier the average response. If you're throwing reality out the window and rewarding risky behavior (both modes are IMO valid game-running behaviors) then perhaps you want to avoid 'meaningless' deaths.

I fear it's a shades-of-gray response spectrum - sometimes you're right, other times you're not, and there's no clear bright line separating the cases.