It is a "want to backtrack to be save or get cocky" mechanic, and like it in most games.
It's an ego check if I'm prepared enough.
And at least in hollow knight it's rarely that much you loose (if you're not hording your money.
In regards to "just 2d dark souls"... I remember when dark souls was fresh and people called it "just 3d igavania/castlevania"...
![Grinning face with sweat :sweat_smile: 😅](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/7.0/png/unicode/64/1f605.png)
Make of that what you want. Finding weapons and items, gloomy European setting, bugs that make some mechanics more op and others useless, but you need to find out, unlockable shortcuts, interconnected map...