Paraphrased
Imagine the following. Player 1 is not a very hardcore RPG player and merely picks up gold he finds in the world...
Player 2 on the other hand, opens every barrel and crate there is in the world...
Who do we have to balance the game against?
Why both of course. The solution I would suggest is to have huge diminishing returns to the benefits gold can provide. If the best equipment in the game is expensive even for player 2 but provides only a marginal combat benefit over the equipment player 1 can buy then there's a benefit to searching through every barrel but not one that breaks the game. Players might gripe about this but it's reasonably balanced and quite realistic.
On topic I'd prefer if nothing had a weight value and I could focus on exploration and combat rather than juggling my pack to see if I could get more value out of dropping 2 swords and a dagger and picking up a breastplate. If that doesn't fit with the design goals maybe there could be a portable store item to turn all non magical loot you pick up to gold immediately.
