I'm going to agree with shadowdef and nonsensei. Everyone has their own way of playing games. Some ppl search every nook and cranny while some just blow through the game at their own pace. Me, personally, i like to grind. It feels good to be able to go back and level up. Especially in this game, where, if you don't save often, u can see that gameover screen within seconds.
Is it that bad if i want to make my game a little less stressful by leveling up? Even on Easy i get destroyed. So when i can't go back to grind, it makes the game feel like if you do something wrong u have to start over. This leads to stress which, is the reason why i'll be soon returning this game to GameStop.
I'm glad there's no level scaling like Oblivion but having no respawn is just like nonsensei says. It makes the game feel less of an rpg and more of a linear fps.