Right now any non-limited WORN item that is requested will eventually repop on that mob, even if that mob is never killed.

The bug is that items carried in inventory do not behave in the same way as items that are worn. They never repop (until the mob is killed or the game reboots). This is most obvious in a certain explore area with a bunch of goodie mobs that carry keys in their inventory.

Again - the code exists so that all non-limited worn items WILL repop. That seems to be the design. This is an (accidental?) exception to that design, with no real rationale on why it would be intentional.

We don't see this in most other areas, because most other areas have worn keys (such as Eil Shaeria, other explore areas).

Fix would be to either make inventory items repop with the exact same frequency as worn items. Alternatively, just make all of those suspect keys become worn items, rather than just in inventory.