Item quality and durability was something intended to be added, so the ‘items last forever’ argument is actually kind of a temporary one to be made.
I think it’s been changed, but spitters melting into acid pools used to wreck all your stuff on contact. It was rage-inducing if you dropped torso gear to melee.
If these get added, I think there needs to be fair chance we’ll wake up hearing them padding about before they’ve consumed too much. Or perhaps they don’t have entire-inventories worth of appetite, but nip one or two things at any one time?
I certainly do like the thought of opening up monsters like sharks, and finding metal goodies in there. Or goodies in general. Mmm, goodies.