1. The old phrase "the game doesn't start at hero" isn't just a cliche.
2. One of the best ways to find people to PK is to hunt them while they are leveling up.
3. Characters are already able to reach hero in under 20 hours. If we did away with EXP penalties for death, I'd want to drastically slow down how fast people level at all.
4. We already made it so you only go down to your level's minimum exp - there's no "exp hole" as there used to be.

I could go on, but I'm not going to waste any more time. This change isn't going to happen.