I really want to play a witch and am looking very much forward to doing so. My familiar will be a cat. A big, ginger, straylike, Greebo-esque cat that I will not ever hide away in my rucksack like the average umpteenth magical object. My DM is very aware of the problems I could face when losing my familiar - but he also very much encourages me to play with wathever fluff I wish to play with. I guess, he will start zapping lightning bolts at Kitty if I start doing really - reallyreally - stupid things with it. But then again, that will probably my own fault and not "the systems". Who knows, the worst case of Kitty exploding could even produce really cool roleplaying situations?
The familiar is an essential part of my witch's roleplaying look and feel. Degrading it to a never to be seen gadget seems pretty absurd to me.