Something I noticed moving up from Expert to Master is the quality of loot I was gathering seemed to be much better. Anyone else notice this, or is it just maybe coincidence and my new character is getting lucky?

I'm not sure if you get better loot if you have higher difficulty but as what I've experienced since I just started playing it on Master (first game was Adept)... It just seems the same to me... or maybe I'm unlucky with the loot or maybe your just lucky with the loot...

Higher difficulty = Tougher opponents and they do more damage. Not even the AI is any better. That`s all i`ve seen.

No difference.. it's luck.. there are some perks that increase your change for good loot (lockpicking skill tree I think)

Better loot? How can you get better loot when the game has static itemization? All Steel Axes are the same. All Daedric Axes are the same. Enchant values can vary, but the types of enchants are fixed. You can always Enchant things better than the ones you find.

Itemization is beyond terrible in Skyrim and simply does not matter what drops. There is no point where I was curious as to what a chest would hold past level 5.

it's more like higher char level = better loot