I don't really have a ton to say about them because I am bad at video games. I just despise the mechanic of Permadeath+Randomization. Everything about the genre screams "get good" while punishing all the central premises of learning. It's just random difficulty while feeding you semi-similar levels on the supposed "beginner levels". Every so often you'll have some bullshit happen that wipes all of your progress, with not a single save point in sight.
Look I'm playing games to have fun, not to feel like some super badass that has mastered every possible mechanic a game can throw at you based solely on the beginner levels. It just feels like the genre exists to punish you, rather than to foster enjoyment.
I don't know if Downwell counts either, I never got far into it. FTL and STS both have a problem where the way to play the game well is contrary to what the game pushes you to do. This is a flaw in the games, not a problem with you.
In FTL, the game implies you're the Federation from Star Trek, and pushes you towards buying cool ship upgrades from shops. The way to win is to pick as many fights as possible and spend most of your scrap on systems upgrades. Also the fanciest weapons are rarely good; the best weapons are the burst laser 2 and the flack cannons.
In STS, the game constantly offers to add stuff to your deck, but after the first few it becomes increasingly unlikely that a card will improve the average power of your draws, and it's better to pass on most of them. (I also think STS is a little overrated.)
FTL and STS are games where you progress through learning its mechanics, which isn't something that's intuitively obvious. I personally enjoy FTL even though only 10% of my normal-difficulty runs actually win. As a beginner to mid-level player, it also helps to think in terms of archetypes, which helps reduce the complexity of the games.
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Wdym by deck thinning? Sure, removing cards is important, but you can absolutely win with a 30-40 card deck, and consistently too. The game is a lot about finding synergies and understanding all the game mechanics well imo.
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Widely accepted? I'd disagree. A heart-killing deck needs a bunch of utility even just to get to that point. In ironclad alone, you want cards that remove strength, give AoE, benefit from exhaust, apply statuses, block, and run your own scaling. There's a reason corruption is a rare card, and why dead branch + corruption is basically a win. Sure, a 15 card deck may be able to out-scale the bosses, but chances are you'll be putting in a lot of cards.
In addition, 40 cards is not that big of an issue. You have many cards that give you draw, and in the late-game, you want draw/tutor to help pull out the right cards at the right time. What's more, some of your cards set-up/exhaust, so your deck will get trimmed down in the first 10 turns or so.
I can win at least 90% of games, probably more, in normal-mode FTL with the Kestrel A.
There are certainly more luck-heavy ships though.