But that idea is dumb to begin with because, drawing from real life once more, we find that:
- Lockpicking would still be the stealth approach. You wouldn't want to bash down a door and alert everyone.
- You could also make it that blowing open a chest would harm the contents. Project Nevada (New Vegas mod) already does this.
- The idea is to make situations were lockpicking IS useful, as opposed to removing options because, in the situations you have designed, lockpicking proves itself to be not essential at all.
Of course, if your idea of "useful lockpicking" is having random chests in the desert, of course you will see how "bash open" breaks the point of lockpicking... but if you place said chests in carefully guarded facilities where making a noise gets you detected, lockpicking (stealth) becomes essential again. It's a shame Sawyer doesn't post in the Codex because I really appreciate his thoughts.