There's a thin line between 'useful' and 'required', just as there is between 'useful' and 'useless'
I wouldn't want the dig-chests to be locked. While it makes sense (you lock it before you bury it right?) this isn't D&D where we expect everyone to have a rogue. Those chests already require a Perception investment, or otherwise a monetary investment in the map, there's no need to make it even more difficult to open them if you already need to allocate points or spend money to get them in the first place.
There are about 8 or so lockboxes in the graveyard, leading up to one chest which has the same loot as any other quest. Quite the dissapointment going through so many chests, looting so many keys. Something could be done with them.
I must not have found so many unlocked chests as you seem to have, I barely seen any. Most are, infact, already locked. But with the key nearby. Do you suggest then that the key goes away? Or did I miss the abundance of unlocked chests around?