Me personally, I don't pick-pocket unless I absolutely have to. Would rather earn my progress and loot.
In the current EA, merchants are rare, they take extra steps to reach from a waypoint, and there is a ton of trash gear in crates and barrels that can fill up your inventory quickly.
It's made worse by a clumsy inventory system where gear has to be manually moved between party members to balance weight because there is no shared inventory screen. Pickpocketing the merchants' endless supply of gold means I don't have to pick up every low-level sword, bow, and piece of armor dropped to sell for cash. I can focus on just the valuables like scrolls, potions, and gems.
I would play it "straight" and earn my progress and loot, if the game didn't have so much junk loot and such a clumsy inventory system.
