On the subject of finding the exact same item in the exact same place, I don't care for it. It diminishes replays and facilitates powergaming (which the latter, I admit, isn't a really big deal in a solo or small group game like this). .
The second sentence is exactly why the first is false.
Precisely because of the predictability, people (myself included) LOVED to replay these classics over and over with the full knowledge of where to find the most meaningful items, so they could create their ideal "power setup" and experience the game again with it.
Conversely, in games like D:OS 1 and 2 item drops always feel "WHATEVER, it's random stuff and I won't keep it more than one or two levels anyway".
They are not reliably there so any attempt to theorycraft your "big man build" will be a blind bet, they can drop at any given time (even just checking a random crate or a merchant auto-generated inventory) so big achievements and exploration in general don't feel rewarding enough, etc, etc.
