You just said the problem: Reloading. No game should be based on "reloading".
Anyone who has ever played Strahd's Possession, or the Mummy's Curse, can easily see that a game company can still force your players to sit at the computer for days trying to complete all of the quests without resorting to the idea of "reload game until you get x item".
Same with Planescape: Torment.
It's true, not every game can be Final Fantasy 7, which is just awesome.
As far as creating your own equipment, I still think that FF 7 had a very good method with Materia (ever tried to max out all the materia? now that's time consuming, especially if you miss two boss battles for the enemy skills materia), if only it'd be applied to equipment making. Divine Divinity has a method in place, with the entire idea of putting gem enchantments on the equipment, if only they had expanded this idea.
oh well.
I'm one of those players who doesn't really like the idea of over abundance of magic in games. I'm more inclined to the Conan and the Ravenloft (original Ravenloft) concept of "very few magic items ever", type of situation.
