If it doesn't call it that I don't see why it should necessarily have to be interpreted that way; it even seems quite bizarre to do for a game where you're just shooting ink or whatever. People (even me sometimes; it's hard to shake off) tend to use "die" or "kill" instead of "lose" or "defeat" by habit in a lot of games where that's not actually what's going on (how many people say their Pokémon fainted instead of died, or even that the Pokémon died rather than "I died"? – some people even say they died in Tetris or the like), so I'll just assume this is one of those cases.
Sounds like an interesting game anyhow but I don't think I'll ever like any FPS/3PS simply because of how it controls mechanically. I don't enjoy the gameplay style (not related to killing or wherever; just the mechanics in themselves).
Splatoon might be a bit more interesting tho since it's so much more than perfect aiming from what I've read, but I have no plans on buying a Wii U.