I didn't have the patience to get a spell book from each bookcase, but did reload several times at each to try. I also reloaded with chests to make sure I at got something decent, and with unique equipment to make sure I got the best damage/armour value and good bonuses.
That was quite helpful at the start of the game, but the game tends to get easier as it progresses anyway, so if you always maximize your equipment/loot you will end up fairly over-powered (unless you avoid charms or pick some other handicap). Playing again I would still reload a bit for stuff like the dragon armour, but would set a limit for myself.
BTW, hitting the Alt key nearby will also fix the contents in containers, the stats on equipment and the inventory of NPCs, just like running the mouse cursor over them.
As for why a developer would allow such an exploit with random loot, at least part of the reason, as you said, is that is the easiest way to design the item generation system.
I think there are more people who want to have the possibility of making sure they get something 'good' than there are who want the game to make sure they don't get tempted to use an exploit. If loot is random there shouldn't be any necessity to reload (if the game is balanced right), but you have that option if you run into a tough opponent, or want to switch weapon types, or something. If loot is fixed, then running into a rough patch, there may not be many option for moving forward. The latter case would get a lot more criticism than the first, since problems cause by reloading excessively are the fault of the player.
There are also situations where it could effect the replayability of the game. If you have to revert to an earlier save and replay a couple hours, at least the loot being different would help (especially if you are reloading because you ran into too much trouble, and wanted to develop your character a little differently). If you have to replay part of the game and you get all the same loot again, it could make things a little more tedious.
Gorasul is a fairly short RPG, with a scarcity of gold, expensive potions and very expensive equipment repairs. The first day I played it I made it half way through the game before I literally could not proceed, as all my good weapons were unusable and I had no gold or potions.
There was a particular quest for which you got to choose your reward (IIRC base on how you answered a series of questions); if you got gold as the reward, and reloaded until you got more than a certain amount, then you would have enough to keep repairing your weapon. If not, then you would have a very difficult time.
There were random battles when traveling on the world map, with randomly placed opponents. If the opponents were spread out, then depending on the terrain it could be trivial to take them all out without needing any potions. If these same opponents surrounded your characters from the start, you could burn through most of your potions just trying to survive. Given the shortage of potions, the second time around I saved before moving on the world map, and reloaded if I hit a random battle that used too many potions, or encountered a negative event (a party member catching some disease, etc).
While this isn't the same as reloading for equipment stats, I still had to strategically reload to be able to finish the game.
Even in a well balanced game, if there is going to be random loot (etc), which adds to the replayability, then the developer has to accept that an as-needed random system may be exploited, or they have to make certain that they don't end up pre-generating equipment that is biased against a certain class or playing style (though a good crafting system could make up for poor random loot).
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