It's Official, Polygon Is Full Of Crap!

[Damascus Rose]

Yeah, so it's not 'official' or anything so OP is just making claims.
Case closed, I guess.

Also, in the Polygon article he writes "Some kind of death must happen sooner or later, though, or the player will quickly realize that the monster is harmless — and that's no good at all."

In that blog post he doesn't seem to be talking about death in soma at all, mostly at how choices affect gameplay and narrative in an interactive way.