Here's the explanation for you:

Revives used to cost something like 2 energy in tier 1, 5 energy in tier 2, and 10 energy in tier 3. If you revived multiple times in one run, the cost would double, up to a cap of 1000 energy. This means that if you revived with energy 3 times in tier 3, you would be spending 10 + 20 + 40 energy.

This was not a "per floor" thing. If you died in depth 19, then you died in depth 25 you'd still have double the revive cost.

Now, Sparks of Life cost 20 energy, flat rate, across the board when purchased from the supply depot, but only in packs of 10 for 200 energy. The highest a revive will ever cost is 50 energy, and you get the damage buff, knockback, and stun from every revive. In the old system there were about 3 to 5 power levels for revives, and you wouldn't get the blast and power unless you died a lot and spent a lot of energy.

200 energy is not asking for much. It's something like 32 cents at the lowest rate, and if you're playing in parties, then you should be good in terms of staying alive if you aren't careless.

If the "olden" days seemed easier, it's because your team could revive you with half their health. This system allowed players with poor performance to keep performing poorly without much of a penalty. Now-a-days, if you can't keep yourself alive, you need to improve your own performance. Sparks of Life drop the same from all tiers, so if you really need them try searching in earlier depths to the ones you're using them in.

I'm not trying to say "git gud" necessarily, what I'm saying is don't go into places you can't handle without being properly prepared.

You claim you "can't spend any of your crowns on sparks", meanwhile you don't want to be caught without one? That's the life of resource management. Either buy/farm sparks or try your best not to need them. This isn't a fault with the system, moreso your priorities conflicting.

One little thing I'll bring up for technical terms is that you're using the word "tier" to mean "star level". In Spiral Knights, we have three "tiers", and six "star levels" - two per each tier. When talking about a "tier 3" knight, they will be either 4-star (4*) or 5-star (5*). There is no tier 4 or tier 5, only 4* and 5*.
Just a bit of helpful advice for talking about stuff, will leave a lot less confusion when reading your posts.

When the game just gives you everything it's less of a game, more of an experience.

When it comes to sparks of life, you say you do well, right? If you're playing in parties, you should be good with sparks of life, especially since you can hold your own. Having "backup" sparks of life is the premium you have to pay either with energy, with crowns from other players/auction house, or with time invested box hunting.

You seem more invested in the orbs than you are in sparks of life. You've already made your choice to go after orbs, but instead of accepting that it's the choice you made right now, you want to have the sparks as well. You're asking to have your cake and eat it too.

You're advancing without sparks, right? Then sparks aren't a priority, they are a backup. Just keep farming for orbs, for crowns, etc. and you'll find more sparks. Once you get all the gear you need, you can start saving up for sparks. The system in place is perfect, it's just not working in your favor at the moment.

When it comes to sparks, I'd like to see them drop more often on normal difficulty and less often on elite. This would give every difficulty level a purpose and also allow newer players to amass sparks of life so they don't end up in the same situation you're facing.