Once upon a time, apparently decades ago, xp loss used to be a cumulative thing. If you needed 100k xp to reach level 30 and you kept dying you could see it taking 150k or more to reach level 30 (as I understood it). And because it was cumulative, by that point you were facing others who hadn't died and had 150k xp who were so far above you in levels that... well I'd just throw my hands up in disgust and delete because if I didn't I was constantly pk'd by people 8-9 levels above me with no hope of hurting them.
Glad to hear that's changed. Deleting now will be just a rage thing over having to regear.