At first I didn't like random stat idea either. Some of it's little unrealistic. Such as George the shopkeeper who loves to sell dozens of broken 1/1 durability items.

I practically used the same weapon the entire game, that dropped on Pedro, because it's only sword I found that had decent charm on it, and I wanted the holy amulet instead of sword, because I had never found a good amulet.

For time spent, I learn one of the important strategies in this game, is to build your character around the gear you obtain, and skill books you find.

If you want the best stats on everything, you might as well just edit your character from the beginning and set every value to it's max. Where's the challenge in that?