I see the points either way, and at this point I don't really know which I prefer, but there are three reasons why when you first changed it I found it a bit jarring.
- Game just stops when the last lix dies but you haven't saved enough. The indication of what is going on is just a small text in the task bar, and I was confused at first. I generally also used to restart the level and fast-forward rather than step back a few seconds, so the advantage of having the latter option wasn't really of much value to me, though objectively I guess it should be considered as a plus. I think back when the dialog appeared, I was used to just pressing Space to retry, and now I have to press a hotkey that's slightly more out of the way, but this is a personal issue and shouldn't be held in favor of or against this.
- It's definitely less evident where the stats from your last try are displayed. The menu already has so much information that it stands out less, and because the context is wider, it is probably also less clear what it actually means. ("99 Lix saved" is reasonably clear, but strictly speaking could also refer to your personal best or something like that.)
- Data loss. If you don't have auto-saving enabled, the "Save replay" button is similarly hidden like the stats. Easy to miss and once you swap to a different level, your replay is lost.