Lockpicking is too easy in Skyrim. It lets me pick every damn lock even if i have only 40. And obviously the perks in Lockpicking are a big waste. Oblivion didnt let you pick higher level locks at all. Also, I loved the presentation of the lock-picking mini-game in Oblivion much more than the one in Fallout/Skyrim.
I wouldn't say the problem is it being too easy. You never want to have a "minigame" on such a common obstacle that's a pain in the ass to do.
Lockpicking svcks for multiple reasons:
1. The perks are all worthless when you have 99+ lockpicks.
2. There's never anything truly remarkable behind locked doors and chests. Just randomly generated loot. You're not going to find the Ring of Khajiit in a locked chest.
3. Locked doors are almost always optional. If a door is locked in a dungeon 99% of the time it leads to a single room or dead end. If it doesn't then there's usually a key nearby to open it automatically.
4. Since you can't sell stolen goods unless you're part of the thieves guild or have a ridiculously high speech level and perks spent. There's really no point in running around town stealing stuff from houses to pawn off like you could in Morrowind.
You never want to have an impossible-to-pick lock at any stage of the game. Going through a dungeon once is enough. Backtracking to the same dungeon just to get one chest that likely respawned into something else is just too much to ask for. There should be other ways to open things though. Such as:
1. Magic can open locks again. The lowest level of the spell is loud and alerts guards and NPC's. The rest should be silent like 25-30 skill onwards. Also the weaker the spell and your skill in magic is the higher chance there is for the lock to permanently melt. Making it impossible to open with magic or lockpicks again.
2. You should be able to bruteforce doors and containers. Smashing them in with your fists or weapons. This can be used on melted locks as a last resort. But it's very loud and has the chance of breaking some of the items inside(obviously quest items are immune). The higher level you get in a melee skill the more accurate you are in hitting the object. Causing less items to be damaged or destroyed. Since you don't have to repeatedly bash it in and are more accurate you make a little less noise as well. But still just enough to alert anyone one or two rooms away.
3. Leave lockpicking in and make the perk tree actually useful somehow. But make sure it's always the stealthiest and safest way of opening locked things.