No to towns without penalty
What should the penalty be?
Any penalty is pointless as long as you can simply make another TrololoAlt537.
If the game continues like that, the only games will stay on server will be the "killers"
The ones that will stay will be those that actually want to play the game how it is and not complain
Yes and this is why the playerbase will keep shrinking till the only people who are left are pvp players who will eventually quit from boredom.
If you will be killed by main char it will be not so pointless as you think. And any new char need to be leveled at least to level 3-4 to good kill someone in town or use some good burst weapon. So karma penalty in city is one of good solutions here.