Spear-Thrower wrote...
This playthrough is similar to what I expected the normal outcome to be. Maybe not so many deaths but it is way too easy for everyone to survive. Anyone losing more than 1 person must have rushed through the game or made lousy decisions during the endgame. A "suicide mission" should be exactly that.
Or lost them due to intended choices, as I believe was what the OP wanted.
For example, one playthrough I have, even when I replay it to fix a minor issue I had (due to not realising you needed 8 members to unlock the collector ship trap mission) will still end up with 2 members dying. Simply because my Shepherd is going to not bother recruiting Tali (Shep didn't want her on the team in ME let alone ME2) and sending Legion back to Cerberus. That means no shield upgrade and no pro vent runner. It isn't a lousy choice, it all falls down to a RP choice in this instance.
Interesting to know that you don't need any loyal members in your final battle team for shep to survive as long as got a loyal person alive. Although find it odd if that thing about at least one non-loyal member surviving if have a loyal one is true. Have you done that on a few playthroughs to confirm it?