I’ve only played a little, but my impression is that this is absolutely true. The main reason for this is that in Dead Cells you can make significant progress without killing bosses. In Gungeon, you can not (hell, you get basically nothing for the first boss after the first time, which is why I stopped playing). So with Dead Cells, even if you aren’t getting very far on a particular run, you can be working on unlocking more health potions, retaining gold for your next run, better starting weapons, etc.
And yes, there are weapons (like the slicers) that can do a ton of damage without needing to be in melee range, and you can build around them.