1) The word you'ra getting stuck on is "Value".
Whats one mans trash is another's treasure, so to speak. RL
Battle everything was recovered from a corpse, and I mean
everything, because you just dont know. In Nam the VC would
take Marine's empty tuna cans because they found they were
able to be made into shells for small explosives. Lootingan
entire corpse is a double whammy, because thinking of all
equip as valueable this way means the player will take equip
for himself, as well as perhaps for his allies, AND anything
which is tradeable.

2) Maybe the person was a more cowardly character. Rather than
the Fire giant beating his chest over your corpse, slinging
your girdle of endless space above his head and munching on
the brains that splashed from your head, the player could have
just dirted you from the shadows and finished you off, before
taking your gear and slipping back into the anonymity of the
shadows making sure she got out of there (as fast as possible)
before you could tell who it was. This leads on to...

3) Finally (and I admit this is a limp reason) the player
might not have the time to search through your corpse and
would rather grab the whole lot, search through at leasure and
give the rest to someone he/she favours, thus increasing the
chance of creating a future ally.

4)While not being very *nice*, entire looting is extremely
strategically sound. The more time a person spends searching
for replaceable equip the more time the person that killed him
has to go about his business unbothered (e.g. leveling to get
out of a retribution pk).