Does anyone actually find going through a room and opening up all the containers to be fun or engaging? (It's not for me; I could see that being someone's jam, but I don't imagine it's particularly common.) If it doesn't make the game better, why do we have it?
In this game, no. In the original BG series absolutely. There were GREAT items for your appropriate level all the way through the game. Not in every container, but it was just as useful as finding the merchants in order to equip a full party effectively. And it was doubly rewarding on repeat playthroughs because loot was static, not dynamic. Once you found an item once, all your future playthroughs knew where to find it. And because of that you could put more focus into checking less obvious places without getting bored stiff.
In this game if I want to get, for example, Leather Armour +1 all I need to do is fast travel to the Grove, pickpocket all Aaron's gold, buy the armour, then resteal the gold I just gave him back. Needs 2 dexterity checks with DC of 10. And that gives me the second best light armour in EA that is still slightly worse than just going naked and using a Mage Armour scroll. Compare that to finding a Ring of Protection +1 in the hollow of a tree off the main road on the first map out of Candlekeep in the original game.
