RvW, on your theory of keeping things simple, we should remove cards,different maps and keep it to a basic game of Risk, oh yeah, bring back the dice! I remember the 1st time I came across a game with so many cards, it seemed crazy but you soon get used to it.
Obviously not making anything too complicated is a priority and I think Fizzer has done a great job and Warlight can be as simple or as complicated as the user wants.
On your argument of not adding in complications then why do we have Spy, Reconaisance and Surveillance cards, they all serve the same general purpose but allow players to add different elements.
I do believe this idea or something similar would indeed be useful for real time games and if it was an automatic setting (not player choice during the game) to lose a life (or lives) then it would add more enjoyment to the game in lessening the insta-boot occurances and ensuing posts in the forum.
So if you like the idea then vote [here](
http://warlight.uservoice.com/forums/77051-warlight-features/suggestions/2838461-extra-lives-to-avoid-early-booting-) - by not voting we will never see this come to fruition anyway :D