Your idea is genuinely intriguing—and yes, a few games have experimented with aspects of this design, but rarely has any one title embraced your full concept as a core structure.
Let's break it down and compare to existing games:
Core Concept You Described
No Game Over: Death or failure doesn't reset progress; it advances the player.
Tetris-Like Difficulty Curve: Gradual ramp from very easy to very hard.
Endless Survival Stages: Each stage can be played indefinitely for high scores, mastery, or just survival time.
Multiple Player Paths: Roleplayers, grinders, and hardcore challenge-seekers can all engage differently.
Victory is Inevitable for Casuals: Everyone finishes the game eventually, but mastery is open-ended.
Games That Touch Parts of This Idea
1. Journey (Thatgamecompany)
No game over, no combat, and no failure state.
Casual players experience the story at their own pace.
However, lacks score/rank/challenge systems.
2. NieR: Automata (PlatinumGames)
Multiple endings and a flexible story progression.
Some endings are triggered by doing silly things (like self-destructing).
It lets players progress even after mistakes, but still has traditional fail states.
3. Hades (Supergiant Games)
Roguelike with death as a mechanic to progress the story.
Dying is part of the narrative loop.
Mastery is in speedrunning, challenges, and high heat runs.
Still, it has failure/retry built in—no automatic progression to the next "stage" after death.
4. Tetris Effect: Connected
Has escalating difficulty over time.
Offers "Zen Mode" for relaxed players and "Master Mode" for hardcore players.
Not quite your vision, but shares the Tetris difficulty scaling idea.
5. Death Stranding (Kojima Productions)
Minimal punishment for death.
Focuses on delivery, traversal, and world-building more than combat.
Allows casual and immersive play while offering challenge in optional tasks.