If you had the option to respawn at the nearest aetherite in the area, then the Return spell would either be removed from the game or would not be free anymore. The only reason it's free now is because your Home point is tied up in having to balance risk VS convenience. You can either have the peace of mind to know that if you die you won't have to travel halfway across the world, or you can have the benefit of being able to freely teleport to a location than is useful and convenient for your everyday purposes.

It's basically a cross between the well-known concept of a "gold sink" and the less talked-about "time sink." Every MMO has these things built in, to varying degrees of subtlety. When they're implemented cleverly, it feels like the devs are throwing players a bone -- but if it's overt and intrusive, the game feels like a grind.

Of course, SE may decide to adjust this in time. But, they know what it means for their game to do so. It means characters overall will be progressing that much faster through the content. There are times when game devs want that, and times when they don't.