Jeff, I had to chuckle a little hearing you emphasize the fact that Outland is a metroidvania that doesn't force limited lives or continues on you.

No Metroid game has ever had limited lives. You get one life, and checkpoints in the form of either save spots or passwords, usually save spots.

Early Castlevania games, by contrast, did have limited lives and continues, back when they were linear action games, but when they adopted the SOTN exploratory style with light RPG elements (actually becoming metroidvanias as we now know them) they ditched the lives and continues in favour of save points.

I can think of no example of a metroidvania game that does use limited lives or continues.

That aside, while I agree that limited lives would be rather inappropriate in most modern games, I do feel that they still serve a useful purpose in some cases, and I would be sad to see the concept thrown out wholesale.