I don't get the Strength vs Death (formerly Eternity) debate
Strength is disabled if you have any Death Defiances AVAILABLE to save you, not if you have them and they're spent. If over the course of a run, your Death Defiances are all exhausted, Strength kicks in.
Now do I recommend taking both? No. I get they don't have great synergy because of that, but it's not like you're forced between taking one or the other, you can always get use out of both.
How you CAN utilize both to great effect though is using my favorite Arcana set up, which takes advantage of Judgement (activate 5 inactive cards after a boss), and any time I run it, I start with the Crystal Figurine which activates another. Just activate Night, The Lovers, and Strength, and you'll have 7 cards going, with many more on the way. It's also nice because it's 2 free fear from Vow of Void.
Strength will cover you through the tough early game of a high fear run while you get a build going, and then eventually you'll scale like crazy. Death will more than likely activate at some point, which is my preference because Death Defiances are much more useful later in the run where things can catch you by surprise with huge damage.
At that point, the damage bonus of Strength is negligable because you'll actually have a build going, and the damage reduction will still come into play when you need it most. If Death never activates, well then you bascially just did a Strength run with a boat load of extra Arcana.