I don't get how anyone can't love random loot, but hey to each his own.
Eh, at least two people already explained it.
- Random loot feels like trash.
- makes itemization inconsequential.
Knowing at anytime any barrel, crate, whatever can yield a tasty treat makes exploring every inch of the world worth while and adds a nice replayability and excitement to the game.
Well, No, it doesn't. It makes everything feel same-y and inconsequential.
When you have the same chances of getting a "good" item (and I use the term loosely, because there are rarely genuinely good items in DOS2) by looting a random crate and by finding a very hidden treasure or downing a boss, it makes it feel like nothing you accomplish means a damn.
Also, randomized equipment is typically generated with trashy formulas and lacks identity, espcially the way DOS does it. On top of this, there's also the additional problem that itemization in DOS 2 scales WAY too steeply.
It's a game where the difference between starting equipment and end game stuff becomes simply enormous. We are talking of stat bloat ranging the "100x" factor or more from beginning to end, which forces a Diablo-like continuous replacement of what your party is wearing.
I'm never been a fan of this continuous swap even in proper hack and slash games where you control a single character, but it becomes an even poorer fit in a party-based title where this incessant race to the upgrade extends to several characters at the same time, breaks the pace continuously and turns into even more inventory busywork, not "to improve" but too KEEP UP with the numeric inflation on enemies.
As a result nothing of what you ever loot across the game can ever feel meaning fuland rewarding, always a stepping stone toward the next randomly obtained and unrewarding piece of trash.
Now, contrast this with the typical itemization of "D&D-like" games, where the difference between starting items and the "stuff of legends" (which can be between +3 or +5 AT MOST) never goes to be more than a 5-10x moltiplicative factor.
When you find a good +1 item in the early levels of a D&D campaign you know it will keep you company for a while, and when you'll get to a nice +2 it may very well be in competition as the best of its kind for most of the adventure.
This makes every single reward feel impactful, memorable, it avoids stat bloat making the secondary abilities (i.e. "inflicts double damage to undead", "gives you one extra attack per turn" etc) rather than number inflation the genuine starts of the show, etc. Which translates in making possible the coexistence of several items of the same tier being equally competitive.
P.S. For people saying "I'm fine with white starting items being randomized". Yeah well, I don't mind that either. But not because I like them. It's because they are fundamentally irrelevant after the first two-three hours of a campaign.
They are background noise, vendor trash, after a while you could replace 10 of these drops with a single gem and the game wouldn't feel one lick different.
BG 2 had "randomized whites", too. Everyone remembers it as a game with "hand-placed unique loot", because the hand-placed loot was all that really mattered.
But what is the point, really? The thing with randomized loot is that you also need to set a LOT of conditions to the loot table to even attempt making it seem thematically appropriate or pertinent, otherwise it just creates problems in terms of immersion and coherence ("why are animals dropping coins and items? Why am I finding books written in recent times or everyday-use items n this ruin supposedly lost and sealed for centuries? Why poor farmers have jewels and rare chemicals in their home's containers?" etc, etc).
