Shopkeepers and more in R78

[blunk]

I've been exploring R78 changes and had a few vague questions.

So was the shopkeeper change on purpose?
It makes some stuff more difficult and hmw more dangerous for sure, at times his help was invaluable.
Maybe the catlord put a stop to previous shopkeeper behaviour when the herding to dwarftown got legendary?

I liked the previous mechanics.

***Debunked, 4th char got different race shoppie**** HMW shopkeeper
Maybe luck maybe random, but this far my 3 characters getting to HMW have had same race shopkeeper (same as my own character that is) spawn there.
If thats a change (will run through some more) I give it a solid thumbs up.

Trap maker
kobold? if I recall correct
Interesting, already made life miserable for one or two characters.
Detect traps became more useful.

Modifiers on eq
Far too small sample, but it felt as if I got several out of range modifiers (compared to previous versions).
Stuff like 7 PV chainmail, d6+9 adamantium short sword, probably just regular adom randomness.