I'm relatively new to BSF, and I'm not here to debate the pros and cons of mettle, just a reaction I had to the possibility of losing it.

A CE popped. Only 4 other people had gone into it. I knew the mechanics for that CE. I also knew that a lot of other players didn't. It's an early one and quite possible to clear without essences, but had at least 2 instant KO mechanics iirc without essences. However, I saw how few people had joined, and that the possibility of a wipe could be high. I looked at my mettle, thought about how much I'd lose if we did wipe and no-one came to res (it was relatively early in the morning server time on a week day when this happened) so just didn't bother with it.

The thing is, I quite enjoy CEs, but I don't enjoy losing mettle. So the thought of the latter mechanic made me not engage with events in the game as well as other players.

It just seems a mechanic which makes one disengage with the game would be a bad mechanic.