With 50+ containers in many of these rooms that's still a lot of time that could have been spent other places.
That entirely depends on what jobs the terrain devs have, doesn't it? If their job is decorations in a zone, including buildings, trees, rocks, etc., then they aren't taking any time away from scripts, or story, since it's not in their job description. I'd be hard pressed to find a room with 50+ containers though, do tell, which rooms are those?