Experience penalty on death is ...

after lvl 85 its just INSANE!!! Its like 3 steps forward and then 4 steps back....

This should be gone asap...

The chip & dales MMORPG song has some choice words about loosing XP on death

It's really just GGG wanting you to feel the achievement if you manage to get to level 100. The problem is almost no one does, so they don't get to feel it.

In gaming there is a great feeling when you overcome something after a lot of attempts and/or effort. That is what level 100 should feel like in PoE2, but as long as -10% XP per death is in, most people will just feel like they're hard stuck which is bad.

I think they should consider a hybrid solution or middle ground. Perhaps the -10% exists still, but it's a temporary loss. You can then no longer drop below that level due to death. So at worst it can take you 2 times longer to level. At least then you still feel like you're making progress, just slowly. You'd still be better off doing content that doesn't kill you as often, but you never feel like you're hard stuck.

Builds are generally considered "done" around level 85-90. Going further is an achievement.