I gotta admit, when I saw the thread title, I assumed this was going to be about kitsune sorcerer and slumber witch PCs. I have seen the fun get sucked out of a lot more encounters by a player soloing it in round 1 than I have from one-shot player death (SoD spell, x3 crit, or any other method).
As mentioned, PFS has a special mechanic with prestige points to specifically help with player death (and other effects) without affecting WBL. Besides, even if you have to use gold, that just means delay upgrading your belt to a +4 by a couple of sessions, not enough to destroy your future usefulness.