I don't mind the random loot, though obviously it isn't entirely random. Some chests almost guarantee legendary items, for example.
The cool thing about random loot is that every play-through will be different. I think I like that freshness over knowing that killing boss X will drop the "Sword of Sorrows" every time.
Reloading and whatever - no need to fix it. Let people play how they like. Same for the leech/come-back-kid combo. Think it breaks the game? Don't use it!!
A few placed items might be nice, especially if backed by random loot. Eventually though, someone will get better random loot and criticism would ensue because of that. Totally dismissing random loot would be a poor idea.
