Right, that's why I'm thinking these (or at least some of these) are actually "intended" to be highlighted.
I've also noticed a problem I don't remember seeing in previous updates - there are a few places with small shelves attached to the wall, and it seems items on those shelves that would otherwise be highlighted by "ALT" aren't. Yeah, I'm nitpicking, but it's what I do.

EDIT: "Empty bottles" are highlighted, but the 1-gold junk "bottle" item isn't. So again, you might be right that Larian intended for "ALT" not to highlight 1-gold junk items (so not highlighting pillows and maybe one or two other non-junk items is still a "bug").