Crap.
I've been having this problem too. For the record, my iPhone 4 never had death grip problems. I thought it was just my wifi acting up, but for the last few minutes I've been watching my signal go from 3 bars to 1 bar (but it's actually 0) just from holding the iPad in landscape mode with my left hand. It's cuts off to the point where pages stop loading but once I release my left hand, it starts back up. My fingers aren't really gasping the device. The corners and sides are naturally resting in my palms. Turning the iPad upside down doesn't work for me because my smart cover is rolled up on that side but I wouldn't accept that as a solution anyways.
Naysayers might want to hold off on judgement as this could be a legit problem. The video shows how easy it is to cut off the wifi. I'm wondering if any iPad 1 owners can replicate this or if it is unique to the 2.