Agreed. Things like Pick Pocket or Distract add flavour and can be really useful when questing/soloing. I was kinda sad when they simplified Lockpicking skill to raise automatically with your level. It was kinda fun to do this little grind to max the skill after each expansion - not many people did that and being on of few that could open that high-level epic lockbox from Wrath felt quite rewarding.
The truth is that they could certainly slightly increase motivation to use Pick Pocket or Lockpick. Those three epics at the start of every expansion aren't bad, but not nearly enough. Especially considering the world-drop level drop chance.