I honestly feel like that should be kept in as well. Having more choices on how to progress is nice, as long as both are close to the same-ish amount of effort, just with different mechanics and gameplay involved. Perhaps instead of outright removing it, maybe lowering the chance of getting bronze chains and lamellae when panning bony soil?
Regardless, I'm a big fan of playing malefactor and simply just looting from ruins, that sort of scrapping gameplay is immensely fun to me.