Yeah, but still bashing the chests should have some downsides. And now for most containers it's faster, less expensive, and doesn't require any skills. So lockpicking is pretty useless.
I agree.
I just think the solution would be, as stated, making destroying the container riskful (so there are still various options, sensible ones), rather than reward XP for lockpicking only, making all other options (including ironically, getting the key) less optimal. Which is, quite frankly, stupid.