e4 e5 Bb5 Ke7 is the only way for black to "survive"
The only other option is freezing the bishop followed by g6. Just freezing the bishop and playing a random move leads to Qh5 with a jump king capture threat on two sides; neither can be stopped. And obviously not freezing the bishop loses to jump@d7 Bxe8#.
So after freezing the bishop and g6, White will still play Qh5. Black cannot capture the queen because the bishop jump threat still exists. So then black plays c6 or Nc6, but either way White just plays Qxe5+ and Black is lost. If Nc6 was played, Black cannot capture the queen because the bishop is "pinning" it to the jump threat that was blocked a move ago, and Black can't freeze anything because he is still in cooldown.
Ke7 instead of g6 prevents the forced mate but I would rather not play into such a terrible position
e6 is much better but it's still definitely worse for Black.
Did you consider something like 2... freeze@b6 Bb4? I don't see any other path outside of 3. c3 c6 4. cxb4 cxb5
I haven't analyzed completely but I think a prophylactic 2.c3 might be a more interesting way to play it where you wont be dealing with a boring symmetrical line
e4 e5 Bb5 Ke7 is the only way for black to "survive"
The only other option is freezing the bishop followed by g6. Just freezing the bishop and playing a random move leads to Qh5 with a jump king capture threat on two sides; neither can be stopped. And obviously not freezing the bishop loses to jump@d7 Bxe8#.
So after freezing the bishop and g6, White will still play Qh5. Black cannot capture the queen because the bishop jump threat still exists. So then black plays c6 or Nc6, but either way White just plays Qxe5+ and Black is lost. If Nc6 was played, Black cannot capture the queen because the bishop is "pinning" it to the jump threat that was blocked a move ago, and Black can't freeze anything because he is still in cooldown.
Ke7 instead of g6 prevents the forced mate but I would rather not play into such a terrible position
e6 is much better but it's still definitely worse for Black.
Did you consider something like 2... freeze@b6 Bb4? I don't see any other path outside of 3. c3 c6 4. cxb4 cxb5