Not every game needs to be a MOBA pubfest with gamewide character progression that is centrally tracked and balanced for every server everywhere.

Valheim is a game about death, and overcoming it. Death is an experience best shared among friends... much like a dedicated Valheim server. Some gracious people may leave servers open to random people, but by and large, those you are playing with are supposed to be there because you know them.

This is what games used to be like before Web2 and the dark times - back when games looked and played the way Valheim is designed to look and play. And frankly, it made for better games.