I understand that KoS behavior is problematic in a game about human interaction. Getting cheap-shotted isn't fun or intriguing. It doesn't add anything to the experience.
I also understand that DayZ is intended to be as pure a sandbox as possible, and artificially deterring any player behavior is heresy. We must be allowed to make our own choices.
HOWEVER. There is merit to consequence. As foolish as it sounds to suggest it of a naturally selected species, we are not 'meant' to kill each other. In fact, very few people in combat situations seem willing to fire on exposed enemies (Only 15-20%) unless given the operant conditioning of modern military. The animalistic midsection of the brain contains a powerful resistance to killing our own kind, a survival mechanism found in many other animals that keeps them from killing themselves off in competition for mates and food. Military conditioning overrides this midbrain processing and allows us to attack other humans without restraint. Survivors in DayZ are not military, however. They do not have this conditioning, and the stress of going against our instinctual programming can permanantly affect people emotionally, psychologically, and even physiologically.
We are not war machines in Chernarus, at least not at first. We are regular people whose actions REQUIRE consequences to make them meaningful. Everyone has a scary run-in with other people eventually, regardless of good or bad, and these events are not insignificant. Killing another person changes how your brain works. You don't need to paste a red letter on the murderhobo, but he SHOULD know what he's done in a real way.