I finally finished it last night, btw, after I promised I wouldn't. The patches made things alot better but they still loot sometimes. They wouldn't drop their loot and got weighted down and burdened.
I like adding NPC's, just to add some variety and interesting dialogue, but the NPC looting with virtually all NPC's other than Elmo and Meleny (after the patch) totally ruined the game.
The sheer unplayability due to all the bugs is still the main problem, even with all the patches. That radial menu is the least of the problems I had with the game. Is Temple of Elemental Evil the most frustrating game to play, ever?
