Sometimes that's all you need to reach a new exit or even another secret that dares you to push further.
Most of the newer blobbers have such lousy dungeon design this is never a concern, because there aren't secrets, or new exits. The dungeons are so boring, and straightforward that it's more like going point A to point B as quickly as possible. SoSC even lets you autowalk places...
A miscalculation can kill a team member or make you waste an important item or spell, which means leaving the dungeon, or worse, a total party wipe. It's this careful balance that encourages risk-taking to reward discovery and makes the genre addicting, and something Elminage excels at, Gothic in particular.
Most fights you take 0, or minimal damage because enemies typically miss. If they do hit, they chunk your HP. Same goes for the case of being ambushed. This is lazy RNG, not difficulty. Yes, you see the enemy silhouettes, but you don't know about an ambush till after you choose to fight, and generally the only time you get hammered. SoSC and Labyrinth of Lost Souls are terribly guilty of this. Getting wiped over something you had no control over is not true difficulty, or a sufficient risk. At the risk of digressing too far.... SoSC's character creation is also SHIT.
LP is a pointless mechanic since death is too expensive, you're just going to reset if someone dies....so you may as well make every team member a 1 LP beast with a huge roll imstead of gimping yourself with some 3 LP pussy that gets a bonus roll of 4.
Elminage is too loaded with worthless 1x1 and 2x2 rooms that contain literally nothing, and pitfall traps that are unidentifiable until you step on them. Forced encounters (because you have extra chance of fighting when traversing doors) and damage is not attrition of the good sort. If I want an RPG with good attrition. I'll play Shining the Holy Ark or one of the Dragon Warriors.
It's this careful balance that encourages risk-taking to reward discovery and makes the genre addicting,
I like RPGs for the same reason, but it's not exclusive to blobbers, it's just that modern RPGs allow you to save anywhere anytime. The "well just dont save!" argument doesn't work, because if the game gives you the ability to do so, there is no reason not to, and is often balanced around it.
The Etrian Odyssey series alone has added so much to the formula and readapts it constantly
Art-style aside, EO is pretty much the exemplar of the genre and brought it back from relative obscurity. Alas, my copy of The Dark Spire went missing, and now it costs a small fortune.
Etrian Odyssey isn't perfect either. Atlus had a decent amount of success with it and released too many titles in too short a time frame and caused serious burnout. And that isn't even including the two rereleases, and Persona crossover stuff. And I wasn't big on SMT4 either. Got bored of it at the Minotaur boss.
Edit: Etrian Odyssey's biggest contribution is materials from enemiea dropping based on conditionals. Grinding a single enemy for 12 hours for a Muramasa is neither fun nor interesting, and SoSC's hunting mechanic took the grinding aspect and made it worse by FORCING you in and out of the dungeon by capping your Hunts.