by VDZ » Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:28 am
World resets reset the world. Not just the progress I made, not just the progress you made - the world is still open and unclaimed, there are barely any settlements, I can't just teleport to whatever market exists this world to immediately get goods at a quality level that would take me ages to get on my own for cheap, every evidence of activity you come across indicates the presence of an active player (not someone who played four months ago), and so on.
The experience of a new world is very different from that of a world that's already completely built up and just endlessly raising quality. That experience is worth sacrificing my progress for, even when I'm still actively playing.
(In addition, world resets often happen when I'm not active, while permadeath by definition happens while you're active and value your character. Though I have been active at the time of world resets before, and then the above applies.)
EDIT: Ah, should mention that I'm not opposed to permadeath myself. This is just why I don't perceive a wipe as a negative experience, whereas death is a negative experience (though one that IMO adds to the gameplay).