The life ring is really stupid. It essentially replaces the penalty for dying by a 3k souls tax. Getting 3k souls without dying gets extremely easy not even 10% into the game. Hence you pretty much always want to use this item. The only real cost is the opportunity of wearing a better ring. And I don't think there are many rings that are as powerful.
There should be penalty for dying, but the penalties seem, considering the technical flaws, pretty ridiculous.
Most of my deaths come from falling, due to roll from jump, low visibility, error when navigating and so on, so no this ring is not stupid. If you dont want to use it, then just dont.
Besides, you still have to fight and die for the souls you gather, so I think it is perfectly fine.
I find rolling and dodging, while under 50% equip. load, to be more effective and fun than blocking with a shield. So I use medium armour, like Faraam or King sets, which let me keep a relatively low equip. load (with high VIT too), unlike the heavy armours.
I only use a shield in certain boss fights sometimes, especially when I'm scared.
IMO Blocking drains a little too much stamina. like a quarter of bar on average for one hit. I sometimes found myself speculating of dropping shield altogether for more reliable rolling.