I agree there, mostly it should all be empty, saving places that are currently occupied by people, random stashes of stuff in forgotten boxes is a little weird, especially after 200 years when it would all of either been looted or turned bad.
The best way of getting stuff should really be slitting some traders throat in the night.
Will have to add that mod to my list.
I've always used increased spawns with marts mutant mods, infact I've anything my spawns are way high, the corridors are choked with corpses whenever i come across ghouls... no marts mutant mod for new vegas is basically why I don't play new vegas.