Yeah, didn't really get into Fallen London because of all the timers. It also seems to have kind of a slow start.

I also think the permadeath is unnecessary, and generally bad for the game, but it does add a bit to the experience in some ways, so I see what they were going for. Stuff like losing your child because you told some stranger to head East and angered Salt, or exploring dangerous areas like Eleutheria and Blue Kingdom are improved with permadeath on because the stakes are higher. The flipside is all the wasted time, though in the case of skies deaths were infrequent in my experience.