I have just re-watched an older video done by Paul Sage last year that was about gathering and exploring. In is he said that as you "increase your skill in lockpicking" you'll be able to get better and better stuff from chests in the world.

There didn't seem to be a lockpicking skill in the game in beta, so did they just remove that idea or is there a lockpicking skill line that is supposed to be coming?

seems to be gonne. Maybe to specific for an mmo-setting.

I view it more as a mini game now. They could be holding it out of beta for now, and upon release there will be skills in the game. Till then though, can only try to keep getting some plutonium for my nuclear reactor to get my flux capacitor to work (lightning was unreliable).

In Oblivion, IIRC it was still possible to pick every lock in the world without a single point in the lockpicking skill... which is a good reason to get rid of it It should be a player skill thing (minigame) or skill-based thing, but not both.

It's good that it's gone.
I love it when some people try to pick harder locked chests and just fail. I just sit there with my character, wait for them to use all of their lockpicks and then just pick the chest open on the 1st try.

The lockpicking is really easy once you figure it out. But so many people just fail at it.

More of a mini game now.
Who knows if an actual skill line will be introduced, if it was what would the skills be? Seems kind of pointless, either way lock picking will probably play a bigger role when the Thieves Guild is implemented.