Retroactive Immortality really depends on which type. Either way, I find it to be the most troublesome and unreliable. You'll still die, but you just won't stay dead and you don't know when or how you'll return. Look at (Marvel) Phoenix - do you want to stay dead for so long and finally return to an unknown time and place? Or (Star Wars) Palpatine - when his clones are gone, it's gg.
Death Defiance is only about dying. Will you suffer forever with a hole in your heart to defy death because you can't regenerate it back? Continue to live without limbs?
Anyway, I think the lower two are more straight-forward, less vague and more reliable.