You've proven your mindset yet again right here.
Let's face it, Erragal, beside being generally very unpleasant, obnoxiously patronizing, incredibly unaware of how ridiculous you can sound every time you try to act as if you had a superior understanding about any topic -across several forums, apparently; see your previous ramblings about what constitutes good writing- you also have the typical habit of rabid fanboys of seeing just what you want to see and constantly distorting reality to fit your bias.
This is what the game is trying to curtail.
That was quite obvious. The problem is: it shouldn't, because it doesn't work for the best. it trivializes itemization, it doesn't make it more interesting.
Jagged alliance 2 is a terrible representation of emergent narrative gameplay. You didn't even understand why I cited those games and showed yet more of your cognitive failures because you believe every 'tactical squad game' is somehow the same.
I explained perfectly clearly why i mentioned jagged Alliance 2.
Not to mention your whole rant was baseless garbage, since Ultima VII wasn't a case of "emergent gameplay" at all. If anything it's the very model of plot-driven RPG.
Oh, and it didn't even make any use of random loot, by the way, if not for minor things ("trash loot" as argued in the OP).
But what really matters is that I probably played it far more than you and I'm arguably the last person you should teach around about "going back to the old RPGs".
Maybe you are the one who should actually play it more and learn from it.
On top of that, playing and knowing that game would still be irrelevant in relation to the topic at hand.
