I just died 3 times in a row, the last two after a hot-blooded attempt to do my corpse run almost naked. I'm fine with loosing stats (they mean that the game is still beating me at times), and I'm not competent to estimate how a different amount of loss would be fairer (it would be more forgetting, of course). Perhaps on day, someone will take the experience formula on the wiki and come out with a summary informing us that one death at around all stats 20 means X more in game days of exploration, harvesting and hunting.

I don't see stats as an absolute meter of my in-game leisure, and it's okay if they can be a meter of a player's skill, investment and luck all together (would be they published or used as an achievement). Any day it will become obvious that my characater is lacking in stats to beat the game, then I'll invest some IG days into training, but I don't know if this will be pleasant. For now, I let stats evolving naturally as I live... and die.

No offense, but this game has to be somewhat challenging for the min-maxer, and death penalty is pretty convenient, though you certainly don't have to play like/for this.