Wouldn’t birds or other animals get to them first? It’s also common that injured animals will crawl somewhere hidden to die if they can. I’m willing to bet many cats have died in trees or falling from them.
I'm quite sure that approximately no cat has ever died of thirst, hunger or exposure because it hasn't been able to get down from a high place. They will get over their cautiousness once they get hungry or thirsty enough. At most, a cat might fall badly and then die as a result of injury.
That’s not actually long enough. My cat got up a tree, which we couldn’t figure how to get up safely (very high on a slope with ground that was not stabile and nowhere near good access)
Took about 20 hours before she came down. Just before the tree surgeon was arriving to help get her down.
