>I feel like I can easily go to
>ante-hell, oryx steppes, Haunted wood, Grymnear, Keep of the
>Righteous and a half dozen other places before you can
>realistically get back, and then I'll get quite a lot of time
>to sleep it off. And my experience is that basically nobody
>checks those places anyway.

You're absolutely correct in that you could do that (assuming we're not talking, say, something that can scout from the air); but most people don't.

Much like anything else in the game there's a certain amount of getting people to beat themselves involved. Part of the art of really milking the healer and/or healing items is to not appear to milk the healer. If I just got away from you writhing and you see me nearby two ticks later (and you didn't see me parked at the Temple of the Sun for a minute first), is your first instinct that you need to hide, or is it that you're going to finish me off?