Actually... yes, it does.
A game with a large ironman following does not attract the same people than the one that think that save-scumming is ok.
I think of AI war of "hey, I have this save, can you salvage this situation ? I failed 5 times already" type of game, rather than something else. And I don't want to lose that.
I don't go to x-com forums because of that. Too much of that "I don't save-scum, me real tarzan man, go die in a fire you savescummer s***" crap for my taste. Not all of them are like that but once it reaches critical mass... You'll get a few of those.