Idea: Chests with pre-damaged, irreparable metal tools, armor, and weapons

I love this game, except for the treasure chests. Early-game, they're good for coins and some reagents. Late game, they're nearly useless since you have everything you'd need from the merchant, and fulings drop all the black metal you'll ever need. At least they were for me. You can't get tools, armor, and weapons from them. Which is understandable considering how you would just be able to repair them for free and you'd have no reason to mine minerals. The repair system (in its current state) basically means any kind of tool, armor, or weapons being found in chests would be game-breaking.

So instead, what if chests dropped pre-damaged tools, armor, and weapons that could not be repaired, and when they break, they disappear from your inventory. That way we could get a taste of later-game items while not breaking the game's progression.

So for example an Iron Sword in a chest could be at 1/4 durability and have some kind of item tag on it like "Treasure" or "Damaged" or something like that, indicating that when it breaks, it will disappear from your inventory. Or even introduce a new type of volatile weapon class that only drops from chests?

Just jotting down some thoughts for some more exciting loot. I still love this game to death even if the chests are a little mediocre.