Well, the problem before was the complete opposite. I never had to train lockpicking at all in order to open locked safes or chests, and I very rarely broke any bobby pins. Heck, I usually would sell large amounts of them to vendors as long as I kept around 50 for myself. Right now it's true that it's impossible without spending some points in that perk, but I also think that in the long run it shouldn't affect the game much. I mean, by level 20 or 30 it should be easy to spend 4 or 5 points into Int & lockpicking, although I'd suggest the one perk to be able to bear more stuff in your inventory.
On another subject, Subquake, great mod, mate. I'm currently trying to hold my urges to play the game till the stable version is out, mainly because a few friends and myself are planning on getting a dedicated server and run wild.
I know your roadmap is currently pretty long, but it'd be nice if there was a possibility in the future to add more farming, more harvesting, more hunting and, obviously, more recipes. Some of my friends want to play 7d2d as if it were a farming simulator. Hilarious, I know, but it'd be fun and give extra stuff to do for that kind of players.
Thanks, mate, keep up the good work!