I think it shouldn't be taken as if you were a ghost, but more as if you looked weaker, sick. With all the stats being down, and how straining a death would be. That is why I think there is that effect.
Okay... but what about characters that keep themselves more or less completely covered up? How would others be able to tell just by looking at the exterior of their outfits that they're not doing great due to a recent death?
If you want to "see" the effects on a person without them emoting them to you, "examine" them. You can see all the negative death effects in the form of red-colored attribute loss.
simply because someone has penalties active doesn't mean they've recently died.
In other words, should a person be able to immediately recognize that someone is recovering from death, or simply that said someone looks pretty bad, and that poor health might be attributed to recent death, but might als be attributed to something else.
And no one's answering my question from several posts up.