by letsdance
i love both. i don't think DL is more forgiving then agricola. the only difference is, that there are only 2 points during the game, when it matters (2 fights), and agricola has 6 of them (harvests).in DL it can happen that everything you have is destroyed. in agricola you merely get negative points. in agricola it's also easier to avoid begging cards, than losing dungeon tiles in DL. but to me it sounds, like you're more concerned about what you have to do to avoid the consequences, than the consequences themselves (or how likely they are). in DL you have less pressure because you simply cannot avoid something bad from happening.
one problem that i see is, in DL if you lose everything during the first fight, the game is more or less over for you. that can't really happen in agricola. you may get many negative points and lose the game, but you can still play sensefully. DL gets kind of boring in the 2nd year if you don't have any rooms.