I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me how a dangerous overworld is supposed to be fun, especially when coupled with the idea of some arbitrary punishment for death/failure (because reasons, I guess). Nothing I've ever experienced and nothing I've seen mentioned in this thread (or any thread of the same subject) has ever amounted to being anything more than a tedious speedbump or it can be easily trivialized in some way.

The only time a world is legitimately dangerous is when you're an ignorant newbie to the game's world (and probably to gaming in general). Once you've learned the basics of gaming and the basic rules of the game's world ("Haphazardly wandering too close to some mobs might make them attack me") and you stop shambling around like blind man in beer goggles, the idea of a dangerous world evaporates. Now instead of having a "dangerous" world, you just have something built to pad playtime and to arbitrarily punish carelessness or bad luck.