I think that lockpicking usefulness problem can be solved only this way:
-if you break the chest you get broken junk, or nothing at all.
I've suggested this idea before and I'm on board with it. I've only come across one chest so far that couldn't be bashed, which makes lockpicking completely pointless.
As for rewarding XP for things like lockpicking, I don't really care. It's not a system like crafting where there's a reward intrinsic in the system; as the game is, there are better alternatives to lockpicking and disarming traps so putting points into lockpicking does need to be justified *somehow*. People coming down on BG2 for doing the same thing, but the experience bonus in BG2 was largely neglible. I think it's one of the worst ways Larian could make lockpicking meaningful, but I'm not really oppossed to it.
