Some people just have a hard time realizing that death in an MMO is actually a gate (i.e. prevents rezzing and zerging bosses) rather than a 'difficulty'.

Also, repairing in this particular game is VERY expensive, and if you don't craft or have a linkshell/guild, you will be broke in no time, guaranteed. Attaching a gear-breaking mechanism to dieing would not be a very good idea for this game, especially given the multitude of issues already present. Do you seriously want to make things this damn hard for SE??