Nah, it just appeases bloodlust. The main reason why criminals commit crimes? Because they don't think they'll get caught. Going arbitrarily draconian has limited returns at best, and escalates things at worst. (If the crime is punishable by death why on earth would they let witnesses live?) Compared to increasing the (perceived) odds of being caught.

To be clear, the comment I was responding to mentioned severe punishment; at no time did I promote the death penalty or any corporal punishment. "Skin in the game" simply means incentives and disincentives: if people can act behind the guise of an entity and without repercussions (privatizing benefits and socializing losses/detriments) then society ends up worse off.