I would have thought the same snub, but it did not happen like that. you basically lose it all. I would have liked the same as you but then again, this is supposedly hardcore. The problem I find is that the reward this time wasn't great. The shield is kind of ...errr... just a shield.
I was hoping for a persistence set or something... but no. 100590 was a lot to get to 61, not sure I'll make the jump to 66.