Soren.

They see me cratin', they hatin'!

I see now where I went wrong. I almost completely skipped over a good portion of your OP. Or, at least, placed it in the back of my mind in order to refute a point that you had made. It is in my nature to do so, I apologize. Now, I will answer the original question asked. DayZ, in my humble opinion, should favor no side. It should hold no hands, and it should never interfere. This mod is doing a great job of that so far. (With the exception of a few bugs) it is completely out of my way. I make the game how I want to play it, and when I mess up the punishments are severe. The forum is a nasty place to be, I agree. I have been lurking here for quite a while, and people here are quite harsh. xD Still... it is the community that makes this place so volatile. The same community that makes this game so volatile, and I wouldn't want it any other way. EDIT: Redundancy.

Hm... You made your original point more clear with this post, and I'm glad I understand what you are saying now. But I think part of the majesty that is Day Z, is that those two points, (Persistence and Perma Death) are supposed to be at odds with each other. No matter how many men are in your squad, or what your own personal cache is like, a death still hurts. In fact, I think you are right in that they are in complete odds with each other(At least in this specific instance). But I feel they are made that way by design. To make reaching your own goals and achievements that much more rewarding and to make each passing moment that much more intense.

Guys! We're alpha testers! We're supposed to be testing this mod. Finding the bugs, and helping to resolve them, or at least help them gain a priority. Reverting back? "Don't bother with this version of the game?" C'mon, guys... don't you want this game to get better? In order for that to happen, we need to be feedbacking to the Devs as much as possible, with good, reliable information. Not reverting back because a build is "Unplayable". Alphas often are.