Btw Kage
I just played a bit of 7d2d and tried your method of going guns blazing into pois...
and you are right, that it is not worth it. Especially with all the radiated Z's the reward is like 1/10 of what you spend.
BUT I also feel that is kinda the point. Guns should be a last resort, not a "I spekked into guns and now I want the option to just shoot everything".
While I do play on higher difficulties, the baseline should be the same.
Running enemies are scary (on nightmare) and on insane they 4-5 shot you, so getting stunned is a deathsentence, so guns are more or less the only way to deal with them.
So I do agree that pois need more/better loot for the amount of Z's they hold (weren't they reduced for A18? and loot buffed?), but I also feel like you need to consider that if you are sneaky and oneshot them, increasing the reward will offset the powerbalance.
So I don't know the balance of A18 but in A17 a small increase in loot (like more stuff that you need, not more bullets) would probably be needed, but I'll wait for A18 ^^