1) There should be some minor XP reward for doing so. The ones who won't care for the minor reward will be maxed out lvl and have the least chance of dying (unless of course you like throwing yourself on the front lines of PvP) but then the reward is not why that one is there.
2) Death IS supposed to have some drawback. Going to the Nearest Respawn is good to me, any randomization/choices only lets people die simply to travel. Remove that, and its another reason to stay alive.
3) Newbs die often, yes. That is reason for having the minor XP there. They will be garnering some XP to make up for the lost time crafting/punching scorpions, and thus not be a complete waste of time for Them.
4)'Cutting Trees' was an example. What would be done at each location might be fairly formulaic, but half the reason of dying is the DISCOMFORT of having to deal with the consequence. If you really want to, you Can use all your alts. You'll still eventually have to dig them all out of their grave, so to speak, so this does not really matter.
-People will alt anyway. This little mechanic on Respawn however will be a little something extra to make you not want to just kill yourself for the luls, exploit random respawn, or to drop kick your Rads to the curb instead of actually dealing with the effects of the radiation.