Originally posted by neuroperson:

Because, it takes a long time and a long long grind to get stuff and build stuff so you can craft stuff, and its more than likely you dont just have another full set of upgraded armor and weapons to replace them and you are a bit from your base, and so its a huge tedious slog to just get your stuff back. Its quite painful, but that is the nature of this game, can be brutal at times.
I learned early to have a spare set of troll armor and stamina potions at my "forward base" always. But the loss of skill penalty is what really bothers me

I do feel the need to place a little joke here, so please dont take this serious: Git Gud :P

Now to what I really want to say:
Valheim is a game that is from the ground up build the way you experience it right now. The most recent update has tweaked it a little to be even more unforgiving which I can see why some players dont like that.

But I must state that this is the vision of the game, it isnt supposed to be easy. And if you really struggle that way, that means usually that there is something you havent thought of doing prior.

Before Hearth and Home I streamed the game on a new character and I legit, in under an hour (23 minutes to be precise cause I got lucky with boar spawns), had spedrun to the first boss with a bow and flint arrows in hand. It wasnt a very challenging fight, I didnt even have any real armor or good food. But what I had was the experience to know what to do and how to play, which I then started to apply to anything I saw in game.

I avoided trollcaves for a while till I got used to fighting them. I was very wary of tombs and crypts (and even am wary of the latter now cause of the slimes in them). And so I usually do what I need to, now that I know how to do it. As you even said yourself, you now have some stuff prepared which is indeed a good choice.

Now as for the skillloss, I can see how that would be troublesome but as of right now there is no real other penalty to death that would logically fill its shoes. You can get your gear back pretty easily, even if you die again after or during it. It does not despawn (and if it does, it doesnt despawn quickly at all). So while death itself is a bit of a bother, at best youd have to struggle with walking back.

So in turn they give you a skill penalty. A debuff wouldnt work as well and I feel there is no real other way to penalize the player for not staying alive and well. Remember, running is always an option. You should think before engaging a small party in the Black Forest cause a troll could be around the corner :o