The prime focus of the game design as it stands (this may change) is :
Exploring.

If you explore resources become available regardless of the size of your team and by definition should be able to craft and be familiar to operate the ships & portals in game.

So with that being the premise.

#1 It should be possible to make an emergency Kit of spare gear if you get killed far from home.
#2 You should be able to use excising portals or sail to where your corpse is in your spares and retrieve it.

Being killed is a pain in the neck yes but if you prepare its an inconvenience at best. Loosing skill sis the actual penalty.

So for the OP I hope the difficulty slider they talked about when it comes covers thir wish. But for me that's definitely (very) easy mode