Well, just because "in time" you'll have lucky looter for free doesn't mean you wouldn't save a ton of time getting it early. The extra time spent killing zombies because you don't pop as many heads early is made up for by having better tools/weapons imo.
That being said I don't play with it because I like the organic progression and it feels cheesy to just dump points into an unfun perk (as in, there's absolutely no active effect other than looting better stuff) and get rewarded for it.
But then again I'm also playing traderless for the same reasons, it just feels too easy hitting up a random guy in the middle of nowhere that gives me access to (way better quality) stuff, schematics and workstations for absolutely no reason. Personal taste I guess, I like the feeling of raw scavenging and progressing with what I find. We are very excited in our game cause we found the minibike handlebars & chassis recipes, so we only lack the seat in order to craft them. It might never drop but hey, it still feels better than going to a guy and clicking a button to have it.
Also if I'm not mistaken, traders are much better for SP than MP, because even though you can share quests, the rewards go to the one guy who started the quest, and in a group of 3 if you wanna stick together that means that only 1/3 quest gives you a reward, which is very subpar.