It depends.  Getting powerful loot early on can be very very useful.

I too don't care for more doom. I'm playing on Insane and the Doom counter hardly goes past 50%.

Well the game is in early beta...

But you are correct, once you find the SK's location, the DC can't go fast enough to be an issue.

First impression would suggest that if you do anything to help you win then you get closer to losing.  

Unless the choices you make are bad choices which you wouldn't normally make, so that the only reason that you would make them, was to lose.  But the object of the game is to win isn't it, so why would you want to win by losing?  I think that's right.

I know that can't be right, so there is some reason for it that I am not getting at this moment in time.

I have just remembered something that Frog said about some things that you do will get you noticed by the SK, and the whole idea is not to get noticed until you are ready.  So the reason for it maybe something along those lines.