Now for people who feel that "they loose everything in the blink of an eye" there could be another solution. ( though its up to you not to loose your good chars, best challenge of the game )
I got that idea, lets say one has a toon and dies, how about the "soul" remains as a toon slot in your acc and when you create a new toon the soul enters it and the toon inherits a percentage of the deads skills and humors ( a small one like 15% ) .
this way you do not start from scratch at least... though I guess to a guy that has humors 200 , 30 would seem like mockery

anyway permadeath is what charms most of the players , so ... diiiieeee muhahahhahahha!