One thing that I think is lacking in Lotro is the element of surprise loot. In the wide world of Middle Earth, you will not find a piece of armour, much less a weapon, that has better stats than what you are already wearing from crafting or quest rewards (unless you are still wearing your starters gear of course). You don’t need to hope that the next goblin is going to drop some amazing chestpiece, because he just doesn’t have any. This is valid regarding your stats, however, in terms of cosmetic value, there are a lot of drops around the world that are considered a rare find as their looks are slightly, or sometimes very different from crafted pieces. Sometimes these rare pieces are available as quest rewards too, but even that may be a lucky find as we usually don’t do every quest in the game.
One such rare world drop is the Bear Claws. A pair of heavy gauntlets with an unusual design. They may or may not exist as a quest reward (under a different name), but I have not encountered them and I always check everything with ctrl+click before picking my rewards. Of course I have not found these Bear Claws myself, they were a lucky find at the Auction House a long while ago. The Helm of Vigour is a world drop too, but I know it to exist as a drop or reward in other places as well.