More crafting mags, more ammo, maybe some of the non-weapon/tool bundles. Maybe more dukes. Heck, make T5+ quests always give you 2 rewards, and if you've got max Daring Adventurer you get 3.
The fact of the matter is, though, that the jump from T4 to T5 POIs is so great (not in difficulty, necessarily, but in time required) that I don't know that you can have a worthwhile reward from a T5 unless you nerf the heck out of the rewards from T4 down. Maybe make T4 and below not able to give you weapons/tools, T5 give Q1-3 items, and T6 give Q4-6 items. I still wouldn't bother doing T6's (or non-infested T5s) but I imagine other people would.
This is actually the opposite that just about everyone here is asking for, which shows very well that people have very different expectations of the game and not everyone can be pleased with any choices the devs make. You want more from the quest rewards, while most people posting want less. Though most who want less are focused more on the earlier game so might not care about tier 4+ rewards.
I agree with you in part - tier 5 quests have a time commitment that makes a lesser reward not worth the effort for many people. Especially if you're new to the game. It used to take me at least 45 minutes real time to complete a tier 5 and usually about 1 1/2 hours when I first started playing. Once I figured out the game, I dropped those numbers by close to half. I can't remember the last time it took me over 30-45 minutes or so to complete a tier 5. Granted, I don't scrap everything I find and only loot containers. But it's still a lot longer than earlier tiers and the rewards don't have a similar jump in value to compensate. **I haven't yet come across the two prisons, so I can't comment on time to complete those yet.
On the other hand, I really don't care about the rewards. If it offers me something better than I have, sure... I'll take it. But at least in A21, I rarely see anything worth much to me. Most of the time, I end up grabbing the magazine bundle and the forged steel (yes, I have DA maxed just because I like taking 2 rewards just in case I can't make up my mind). Granted, if the rewards were better, I might be more interested. But at the same time, I don't really need better rewards. I get plenty from loot during the quest.
I suppose a compromise of better rewards at tier 4/5/6 and less rewards at tier 1/2/3 would be possible. It could be an improved scaling system where you get less in the early tiers and more in the late tiers but I don't know if that would really work all that well. As far as dukes, though... we definitely don't need more money. We get so much already that it's not really worth anything.
I find all quests to be way too easy, so for me, anything past scrap armors or iron tools is probably a bit overkill. The fact that I could in theory complete any quest using nothing but knuckles and bows by simply using well known exploits should say something about what the rewards should actually be.
This I can absolutely agree with. POIs are really not challenging once you know them. I haven't done the prisons yet since I haven't found them, so those may be different. But all others I've done are easy after seeing what to expect. The only real way to change that at this point is to have higher difficulty settings to choose from or impose your own limitations on what you can use. I don't really see them coming up with a new way to challenge players in quests and POIs this close to gold. Bandits are unlikely to offer any real challenge and I honestly am not looking forward to having them in the game, though I wouldn't mind being surprised and liking them.
Also, 7D2D is the "Survival Horde Crafting Game", so some crafting should be expected.
And they made an attempt to make crafting more used with the magazine system. It actually is being used by more people now than in A20, I think. And I think that's why there are so many complaints related to it. More people are using it because magazines helped direct people toward crafting but that just made the flaws of the crafting system all the more apparent. They clearly want people to craft, so suggesting that they aren't interested in making crafting viable is not accurate. The problem is the crafting system in this game is really bad and their adjustments to it aren't working. At least, not up to this point. I doubt making crafting keep up with everything else is going to really get people crafting much more because they'll just see even more how much crafting isn't worth it. They need to start by finding a way to make crafting actually worthwhile before worrying about balancing the progression of it, imo. And that doesn't mean they nerf loot even more. It means finding a way to make it interesting or make it so you can craft things you can't loot or buy (I'm
not talking about tier 6 stuff) or something else. I really don't expect much there, though.