For me pet stat loss has killed my interest in playing. When I play I want to kill stuff. And when my pet dies, I dont have time to go take a knife and hack at trees for hours to fix it. Sure I could just tame more things. But what about that pet I paid 500ed +100ed to get to lvl 45? Not easilly replacable.
So instead of exploring and attempting harder and harder things when I log in, I have resorted to killing Fire Steeds and Balrons. Quite boring. Boring to the point I barely even adventure anymore 
Thats my 2 cents on the topic.
This to me doesnt add up.
As you, I also like to kill stuff but part of the joy in killing tougher mobs is figuring out how to deal with them, I can count on my hands the times my vollems have died and every time they have it has been because i was careless or had a faulty tactic for the monster in question.
Having the pets die is part of the risk versus reward though and for me the joy in being able to kill something trumps any time i have to farm herbs to restore loss of stats.
Also the more you kill something the better you get at it, I used to die alot to CaoCao for example but nowadays neither myself nor my pets are in any danger of dieing, not due to better gear but better tactics and use of ingame mechanics.
Alot of monsters for example can be Discorded which reduces their skills and thus their chance to hit your pets, that alone makes sure your pets stay alive longer. Another trick I use is doublehealing. I.E first applying a bandage and immediately after casting a greater heal or touch of life, for easier application of this I have it macroed in Assistuo so depending on the difficulty of the monster I either doubleheal or just use bandages.
Some monsters also seem to eat pets for breakfast while they dont hit you nearly as hard, for those I use myself as tank and the pets purely as damagedealers while I tank and heal myself instead.
Get creative and you'll see most monsters are soloable and enjoyable.
Well said, tyvm for the post