On the other, I would hate to lose a lot of progress because I died miles from any save point... And start hating the game as well if this became a usual occurrence. I don't think I mind losing so much if it's a matter of skill. For instance, I lost many starting battles in Witcher 2, and I think I could enjoy Demon's/Dark Souls if I gave it a try, but I hate instant death spells and when everything is easy and going fine until all of a sudden you come up against the one enemy that does have such a spell, or something similar.

The problem with character deaths is one I'm especially familiar with now too. That's my situation in Baldur's Gate. I know there's a spell there somewhere to resurrect party members, but I was too poor and shortsighted to buy it when I was in the city, and now I'm in a dungeon 20 hours away from it and keep having to save before practically each battle, and reload after most of them because so often a party member will die.

Oh, and worthless scripted items in chests in dungeons.... That's awful! The only thing worse is loot in chests being randomized, with an extremely rare one-of-a-kind items appearing in only one particular chest in the entire game, with only a <1% chance of spawning, and if you miss it you're screwed and will never get that item. Because that's the system in FF12.