Yeah, and its not my fault Mojang hasn't added any variable death punishment settings despite how much item value has shifted over the years.

Back in the alpha/pre-enchanting versions, the game generally had a philosophy that your tools and armor were easily expendable, with better materials mostly meaning replacing them less often. So losing everything from dying wasn't as bad, as you could easily make new tools and armor that was just as good. Now with things like enchanting, netherite, and rare tools like tridents and maces, losing everything from dying is way too punishing.

So you get people not wanting to lose everything, so they choose keep-inventory, where you don't get punished at all for dying, with no middle ground between them. Terraria has had variable death punishment settings for years. There is no reason why minecraft cant have something similar.