Now I'm not here to bash Beth I really just wanted to make a statement with a question in there.

Even though the best part of these games is that there is a huge open world where you can basically do anything you want I feel like the fact that so much time is spent making random usless items and making sure that all of these items are lootable takes away from time that could be spent fixing bugs or working on spells, armors, quest, companions, many of other things that could have been made better or added on.

Look if you want to be able to fill your home with apples then chances are you have probably spent a long time playing the game and are on PC and can get a mod for it but for most that just play the vanilla version it is my personal feeling that junk items take away from making the game better.

I may be wrong and there may be better things to take away from to make a better game. Like many here I know nothing about making games but I do know ruined books are items that should be seen not looted.

being able to pick up and play with any item that is laying around is kind of a staple of this series and one of the things that sets TES apart from every other open-world rpg out there. it also adds a sense of realism that you just cant get from any other game. not to mention its quite rewarding to see the silverware and plates go flying when i bust in on some bandit's eating dinner and greet them with a "fus do rah"

Misc items are just there to get a feeling for the world, increase immersion and provide some monitory value.

If every item in the game was useful and valuable, then money would be worthless. And if you just got rid of all the junk items, then the world would be empty.

Junk items are just added to levelled lists to spruce things up a bit. Apart from dungeons where they're added on shelves and such to increase immersion, the rest of the time they're not hand placed. In fact, having generic loot barrels and crates saves a lot of time compared to having to populate each one individually.

"Ruined Book" is undoubtedly the highest selling book in Tamriel history. "Burned Book" is a distant second.

Don't give Bethesda ideas... It's bad enough that we can't pick up forks any more.

I know! And where the hell did I put my calipers! How else am I going to measure the diameter of the heads of the bandits I kill to see if they'll fit on my shelf!

1. Ruined books can be used to create powerful spell tomes. So I'm very glad you can pick them up.
2. Random crap gives the game greater immersion. My first character in Morrowind spent a lot of time decorating his shack. I wish it was possible in Skyrim... but its to hard to place things.

3. Go play Fable or Dragon Age and leave my TES alone!

Making items lootable adds depth to the game.
I hate it when I'm sitting there in a game, wanting to pick something up, and it's like "... it's right there. it's tiny. I could fit that in my pocket and just be on my way.
Why can't I?"
Skyrim fixes that.
The time they spend making lootable misc items is so minimal, that any bugs they fixed with that time would be half-fixed. If even.

The people who program the things you are asking for are not the same people as the guys who fix the bugs, so no, adding small things doesn't take away from the big things

I know random crap adds immersion and I am not saying that random crap should have a higher value or purpose. What I am trying to get at is that if there was less time spent figuring out how to stack some embalming tools on a table so things dont glitch and go flying away and more time working on things that add to the game then there would be a more complete feel rather than that there is something missing feel most seem to have. As for random crap being a staple (seems more like a gimick to me) of creating immursion in ES games doesnt the huge world full of people and all the wild life create that. Why does lootable random crap make the scales tip in favor of this game being immursive and others not.

Because being able to pick up anything I want makes me feel that I can interact with the world

All the little things that Bethesda adds in the games like, misc items, and lootable everything, is one of the things that keeps me coming back to the series.

This.

Exactly, there's always something to do whatever mood you happen to be in.