Personally prefer my fictional worlds more dystopian that utopian... having everybody behaving in a reasonable and tolerant fashion all the time does make the reasoning for conflict and the effects of said conflict a little less believable.
Yeah for me the most annoying thing about deaths is that they are only reported on the easily missed log, that doesn't save anyway. You could easily find that a companion, or someone you were trying to befriend or marry, had gone and died behind your back.
To add to this idea, tavern brawls, non lethal fist fights against local bullies etc...
It didn't really make a noticeable diference in Warband though to be honest.