[morelisp]

Mechanically speaking, bones can also only get you so far. You have to first get to them to take advantage (and you can't control if they'll actually show up or not), but... then you already got as far as the bones did, and are presumably roughly equally equipped. Usually only 1-2 items orthogonal to your current loadout are useful (e.g. you wished for good armor this game, but a good weapon in the bones game). Also, the bones failed, so on average you are probably better off than they were.

(That's assuming you don't do some degenerate play like get a bunch of loot, run back to level 2, and die purposefully. At that point you might as well savescum.)

In most games bones also represent a significant risk. The ghosts fight you, the items come cursed, etc.