Earlier on our server, a friend and I decided it was time to storm the End for some Draconian Ore. We found and secured the portal (Mystcraft intralinking books to our Great Hall), dolled ourselves up in our best gear, grabbed some potions, and away we went.
Cakewalk. That dragon never saw it coming, let alone hit us. My friend grabbed the dragon heart, and we decided that since the dragon was a complete joke, we would go bang out a Guardian for another heart.
Flying 10k from the end, we found what we were looking for. We prepared ourselves, and were promptly swallowed whole. Both of us. No contest. As easily as we had beaten the first, his big brother avenged him.
Now, if we had KeepInventory on, we would have just marched back for a rematch. Because we didn't, our game changed. Both of our top tier armor sets, my good pick, our best weapons, and the loot from our trip thus far were gone. Not truely gone, as they were in gravestones, but those gravestones were 10k from the End, over a void, guarded by a dragon that didn't care about our prized armor. Hell, he may have eaten the graves too. Who knows?
Point is, our choice had consequences. We overestimated ourselves and underestimated our enemy. Because of that, our game became tight on precious resources again for a while. Sure, we had to recraft everything. We even had to go get more components. We had to actually work to regain our progress. It made me think carefully about my new approach, and hate that dragon with my very core. It made me appreciate the things I had lost (little things like step assist), and it was a great achievement to eclipse our previous level of power.
Yes, it was a giant pain in the ass.
I wouldn't have it any other way.