Let me start by saying that I get this is a survival server and that when you die you loose your stuff. Sometimes you can get it back and sometimes not, thats the nature of the game. I am cool with this in most cases except when it comes to wildertools. Originally I purchased the lvl 15 wilderpick ($40 worth of wildercoins). Even at level 15 it took me weeks of grinding to get it to level 20. I didnt mind the grind because in the end it was going to be worth it, and for a short while it was.

Fast forward a few weeks to me messing around in the end and accidentally dieing to the void while my wilderpick was in my inventory. Now I would normally not have brought my wilderpick to the end but forgot to stash it before i went and paid the price. After sitting there for a bit, contemplating my life choices and almost rage quitting, I decided I was going to try again. I did not want to spend another $40 on a single item so I decided to buy another one off someone. I spend hours in the shops trying to find one at a decent price because the search feature doesnt find wildertools easily. With no luck I then spent the next day or so trying to get one direct from another player and finally found someone willing to make a trade (lvl 4). I then spent the next couple of days basically doing nothing but grinding the pick and almost reached level 7. 

Enter mistake #2. While camped infront of my cobble generator I somehow manage to spill a drink all over my desk. In a panic I let go of my mouse but not before breaking the block holding back my lava. As I am trying to save everything on my desk the laval spills out on to the floor, burning me to death and destroying my new wilderpick.

At this point I almost just uninstalled Minecraft. I have spent more time and money than anyone should, trying to have this 1 item and keep loosing it. I get both times were my mistake. However if you are going to make something that hard to obtain, there should be a way to recover it when some accident prone fool like me makes a mistake. The fact that one can loose paid benefits at any time over something so trivial makes me never want to spend money on this server ever again. I'm not even sure I want to keep playing here and I have spent a lot of time and a in total a fair amount of money on Wildercraft. Considering this is not a pvp or competition based server I dont see the harm in letting your patrons keep the buffed items they pay for. 

While I understand the frustration, it's also a hard line to draw for "what should I get to keep when I die?" Do you include any WilderTools? Or just the ones for levels? Does this apply in all deaths, or should this be a case-by-case basis? 

Personally, I dislike the divergence from vanilla without at least some tradeoff. I'd be more accepting of something like...

Buy WilderPick -> Soulbind and cannot be used by others -> Player Dies -> Pay X Wildercoin to get back a copy of your same WilderPick. 

So basically it saves your progress and lets you get back to the same point on your pick, but with safe guards to prevent abuse to level up or create more of them. There should still be SOME cost for dying with the item, in the spirit of normal survival.

But death in minecraft is meant to be an equalizer. It's not massively difficult to get back to a strong point if you've stored up any diamonds, but rare items are just that, rare items. It's like playing on a normal vanilla server if you mess up and lose the Dragon Egg. None of these things are necessary to be able to continue to play and enjoy the game normally. While it may sting some, losing items is part of the game, and I personally don't want a net beneath me as it dulls the enjoyment for me. At least with a tradeoff, I feel that meets at a halfway point.

(Also at a minimum, just having all of the items as netherite to prevent lava burning is a simple solution for part of it.)

I would also be fine with the soulbind option and even paying some sort of fee (other than real $$) to retrieve it on death. But for something that takes weeks to achieve to be lost so easily is not cool. At the begining of my post I agknowledged that loosing items is part of the game. My issue is that this is not an item that can be obtained through normal gameplay, it's something that is purchased as an enhancement. (Also the tools dont upgrade to netherite until they reach a certain level.) Basically unless its designed as a limited use item, you shouldnt loose it if you paid for it. Its like buying a donor rank, it gives you ingame advantages that are not part of the traditional game. What would you think about it if you lost your donor rank (if paid for) whenever you died? My guess is people would stop buying ranks. I usually have no problems spending money on a server I like to play on but after this, I probably wont spend any more here. Its a short coming of the system. I brought it up in game and the general consensus was dont waste your time with wildertools for these exact reasons. If Wildercraft wants to sell more coins/tools, they should not be so easily lost.