On the other hand I disagree with him that these common items should be necessarily better on average.
When did I say that they would be "Better on average"?
I only said that they should be able to be better than the absolute worst items in the game.
That's part of the random aspect.
In BG3, literally all "Random" items are +0 vendor trash. From Act 1 all the way to Act 3, if you open a container and it has a randomly generated piece of equipment, it's +0.
My suggestion is to have the actual ability for items to not be completely and totally useless.
I.e. In Act 1 you can find +0 and +1 items. In Act 2 you can find +0, +1 and +2 items and Act 3 you can find +0, +1, +2 and +3 items.
This means that actually rifling through containers is actually relevant because you can find items you might actually use (But only rifling through containers that make sense. You're not finding a breastplate in a flour sack or a greatsword in a purse. You'd be looking at weapon lockers, weapon racks, armour chests etc) - These items aren't better than the handplaced uniques, they're just bog standard stat items with no fancy effects. With the idea they can help you get a full set of stat gear without having to go find full sets of uniques or buy everything from a store (Meanwhile, you can also supplement with enemy drops)
I find that the greatest weakness with the gear in BG3 is that 80% of the unique items are just plain worse in terms of stats or synergy than the other 20%. So you end up never using or looking at a majority of the unique items that are in the game.
I think that when you add a unique piece of gear into the game it should have the potential to be the best choice of gear for at least some specific build or synergy, otherwise you could just leave it out and drop something generic because all you do is sell it anyway.
I think a major part of that is the limitations of D&D's itemization. With Larian restricting themselves to level 12 cap, they were stuck with only +3. With most items being either +1 or +2.
Meaning a lot of potential items simply got screwed over because they are +0 or +1 unique items that can literally never compete with the +2 unique items you can obtain at the same point. Even the Pact Weapons having that bonus +1 from being bound still just brings them up to par with if you were just using a +2 weapon anyway (And then you have the +3 weapons that not only are one upgrade higher than everything else in the game, since they are exclusive "Legendary" tier they also have crazy good effects... Who tf would be running around with the Dwarf specific throwing hammer they pick up in Act 3 when in the same Act, right at the start, you can grab Nyrulna which is not only +1 higher than it but also has multiple special bonuses)
To which there's a potential divisive solution to such things, in the ability to "Upgrade" uniques to higher quality levels. Meaning the unique you found in Act 1 can be upgraded to match the stats of one found in Act 2 and Act 3. Whereby the idea is that you are looking more for the perfect special effects for your build rather than ignoring everything that isn't the highest tier loot you can obtain.
This is something that Cyberpunk 2077 does and I feel it works well, every iconic weapon can be upgraded in quality to get base stats comparable with your level. Meaning that no matter when you acquire one it can be part of your final build if its special effects are worth it.
The downside of the system is it can devalue actually looking for items. If you have a full set of uniques in Act 1 and you can then upgrade them in Act 2 then you have little reason to look for any +2 items in Act 2 and you'd be simply looking for the upgrade materials instead. This is fine in CP2077 because it's loot system is utter trash (As it's very "Looter Shooter" pilled with everything being random) alongside the fact that all enemies instantly update to the newest tier thanks to adaptive leveling but could interfere with progression in a more standard RPG format.
