Yeah, a lot of content feels literally balanced around dwarves having dash, because it basically requires you to have dash, since otherwise you're physically unable to dodge certain attacks. The only other option is hiding behind cover, but that requires: a) having a nice cave layout, which is extremely rare; b) having a driller, which isn't always available; c) having a lot of nitra for resupplies and hiding behind them. With that last option you also kind of expect the enemy not to rapidly approach you around that cover, so it's a bit less viable on Haz5.
I don’t think I’ve ever used Dash more than once in 2000 hours of playtime.