I have no problem with NW2 loot, just the crafting. As you say crafting was it's own challenge given the limited number or rogue stones and king's tears etc, but my problem is that you don't know how many of those you are going to get.
I haven't played NNWN2 in a long while but IIRC the guy in the monastery in your castle had an unlimited supply on rogue stones for sale
... but yes, in general I get the idea. You will only find a limited number of gemstones in the game. So you know that you will have to save them for "special items". How many of these you can finally craft is a bit random, true. But in D:OS you can't count on anything.
In my last playthrough which I finished yesterday I managed to stay away from savescumming and took what I found first. It was an interesting experience.
As far as weapons and armor go, it was fairly easy as I could craft acceptable ones myself. Two party members had level 5 rings and belts at the end of the game, because I didn't manage to find any better. Haven't found any self-supporting sarongs for my non-int guys either, so they had their starting ones equipped. However, I had a disgusting amount of totally useless random crap in my Homestead chests (didn't even bother to sell them as there was nothing interesting to buy apart from the skillbooks every level and the odd sinew, sextant or tormented soul).
In my first playthrough I did take the time to reload for better loot countless times. (Granted, in that game I only needed to equip two characters.) Believe me, wearing the best of the best or some mediocre stuff really makes a difference in stats. (Thankfully the end game is not that hard, so you can get by with crap items as long as you know what you're doing. And as long as you can craft.)
But this is not OK in my book. Random loot should not mean the difference between life and death.
EDIT: or if it does, it should be compensated. E.g. by crafting. Then you can decide whether to invest into it or try your luck with random stuff.
