There are times when dying can actually be convenient. However, there is always the risk that someone takes your stuff before you can get it. If every place behaved the same as area explore, a simple way around this risk is merely walk into a death trap and get your stuff back in about 15 minutes with absolutely no risk of losing it.

Also, area explores are meant to be a challenge to both find/get into, as well as survive. It's very likely that a player would be unable to get back to their corpse with their ghost time and be doubly punished by eating another death (or by losing their stuff to pit-vultures). In order to reward brave souls venturing into these areas, belongings return directly rather than into a pit.