Another important factor, I agree. Procedural generation and starting at the beginning in each play through would both be requirements to calling something a Roguelike to me.

And they are also called Roguelikes today. Positive examples don’t reinforce a hypothesis though.

When I look at universally acclaimed rouglikes, I see Balatro, The Binding of Isaac, Slay the Spire, FTL, Noita. Of which none fit your definition. Meanwhile your definition would fit something like the original Pokemon games, or even chess.

I can see what you are going for, but there must be more to it. To me an important element of a roguelike is that every playthrough starts from the beginning.

But Roguelikes don’t have progression. Of course nowadays many Roguelites are called Roguelikes for simplicity so it’s not like you can’t have progression, but it’s weird to call something a Roguelike because it has progression, when the entire point of a Roguelike is that it doesn’t.

Minecraft would be quite scary if you actually died when you died.