If you're playing online, you probably wouldn't be able to "reload" a save, as everything is tracked persistently through the central Atlas database. Getting killed is probably an upload event like using a beacon, it probably updates the Atlas immediately.
Offline is unknown, because the "Atlas" would be stored locally on your PS4/PC. If there are multiple save states, then I suppose it would be possible to savescum your way to never losing anything.
For that matter, I wonder how they will handle offline and online, since offline play will technically have a different Atlas than the one we all connect to online. I wonder if we'll have to play with different characters on each, or if they'll sync your offline Atlas with the newer online data if you reconnect. I'm leaning towards separate characters, unless they have an intelligent way of uploading just the relevant data to each client when their Atlas syncs with the real Atlas. I can't imagine them syncing the ENTIRE Atlas with each offline client, as that's way more information than any one PS4 could store or handle.