How would that work in HC; you have to die to visit spirit guide? 
Anyway, I like experience loss. There should be a penalty for dying. I think the exp loss should be even greater than what it is today.
There has to be some penalty to dying in SC, otherwise why not just make all classes so OP itâs impossible to do so. Yes, you lose some XP, but you get some back when you reclaim your death marker so it doesnât really affect levelling that much - unless youâre dying every 5 seconds in which case you need to look at your build and how to improve it, not complain about losing a few XP points.
Back in my day, death penalties were 2% of the experience you need to next level (excluding the exp you gathered in that level), you could de-level (go from level 25 to 24) and getting back the 2% required you to kill stuff for at least 15 minutes. If we died, we never said âthis mechanic sucksâ, but âHoly shit I suck! But at least I have some items!â. Oh, and we could not take the tombstone to get our exp back - we had to farm it back.
Taking that in account, GD has no death penalty. After collecting the tombstone, you get back like 70% of the lost exp back (correct me if I am wrong) and you lose like 1% exp? You literally can get it back after getting the tombstone and killing one trash monster. Over all time wasted to level up: 15 seconds (I know this is an exaggeration - it probably takes 1 or 2 milliseconds, because thatâs how much it actually matters).
Thatâs true hardcore. 
If dying is part of your gameplay and needed as resource, then you would not include hardcore. But I was speaking for games in general, but not actually suggesting it for GD.
not having any respec options would make hardcore truly stand out.