Yes, well, I'm also tired of how every MMO I look into, I see people whining about how they don't want whatever to be "easy mode" because WoW did X, things are "supposed" to be rare, some guy they'll never ever want to play with anyway is hurting their game by not "earning" something, people with no lives should be better rewarded, or whatever bullsquat excuse is played. As is, death carries the following penalties even without EXP loss:

1) Time spent waiting for a raise is potential loot and EXP not gained.
2) Waiting on Weakness is similar to 1, though partially offset if you're a non-critical role in a group.
3) If solo and 1 isn't possible, further time is lost if returning to the area you died in.
4) You potentially hamper quest/mission progress.
5) If solo, you'll obviously have to start over again on a specific mob if that was your goal. This can be tied to 4.
6) If you were after a contested monster, it might not be there when you return.

Overall, regardless of the game, it's rare the process of EXPing is what people consider fun. Making people have to do more of the things they don't enjoy is a surefire way to discontent and possible account cancellation. As juvenile as some may feel it, people have quit over the EXP loss mechanic. It made classes like THF hate themselves back in the day as popular sacrificial pullers in Dynamis, only to never get invited to EXP later. PLDs went through similar simply tanking. Nowadays this isn't so much a concern since endgame EXP is certainly more superfluous, but that generosity isn't as prevalent in the lowbie levels. In general, how you EXP doesn't exactly reflect how you would behave in an endgame environment, either. Ever hear talk of how "Campaign noobs" sucked at their jobs because they were meleeing mages or wearing some kind of non-standard gear? Well, that's kind of replaced by Abyssea leeches today, but the moment any mob does more than just auto-attack/TP move/cast spells once engaged like with EXP, you'll need to learn on the fly.