But how can improve yourself, if dying is not in your control. As a Red Wizard, all I do is damage deal. I don't heal the tank. If he dies I am the one going down next. If it's a boss mob, unless it's 1 hit from death, there is no way to prevent myself from dying.

All an exp loss would do, is make me more of a jerk. I would help far less people if exp loss was in-game. So new players wanting to get stuff done, wouldn't get help. Therefore making a new player suffer.

So I would rather have damaged gear, than exp loss.