I've never been a fan of the expansions to Icewind Dale, I always play it 'pure' as my review of the HoW expansion explains:
http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/?f=118&t=120178&rb_v=viewtopic
The idea that the original IWD is just a loot finder is generally absurd. While loot is nice and an integral part of the game (like any RPG), it's not the core of game-play, it just seems like that for want of another descriptor. The loot in the original IWD is actually extremely sparse, mean even. You can go virtually the whole game without finding a belt for some characters, for example, and in my last game the Druid went without a Staff upgrade until about half way through the game - literally just wielding a stick for half the game.
The essence of IWD is many-fold, but loot is not high on that list. The shining points of interest are:
1) Tactical game-play. If you like your battles to be tactical and you consider yourself a bit of a tactician and you are drawn to games of a tactical nature.
2) Vast character choice and varied specialisations within those choices, vastly expanding the combinations and replayability of the tactical aspect.
3) The epic nature of the story which pulls you to all kinds of varied locations and creatures you wouldn't find in any other game. Really, every single screen is a plethora of brand new creatures with very little repetition and most certainly no level scaling. Even the early undead area has skeletons, zombies, Yetis, shadows, Giant Worms, Guardians, Whites, evil Clerics, Ghasts, Mummies, the list of monsters all packed into a few small opening crypts is breathtaking - all requiring different skills to overcome. Most RPGs just shove 'standard monster' in front of you on a recycled basis.
4) The number of actually difficult encounters is large and won't always follow the usual RPG tradition. In one of the above crypts, for example, the end boss meets you at the entrance, then you fight all the minions further in the crypt after you have killed the main boss. Like-wise, the many traps and monster 'set-ups' includes no end of genuine variety which is 'intelligently' designed rather than 'idiot AI' based, such as the infamous 'bridge' encounter upon entering Dorn's Deep upper area.
5) The game does offer you quite a lot of opportunities not to fight if you so choose - something no loot game could comprehend nor desire.
6) None of the quests make you scream "why am I doing this?" as all the quests are properly immersive within the confines of the main plot. Some quests you receive from almost the start aren't even completeable until quite a long way into the story, they are things you notice along the way rather than specifically go to a random pointless destination for.
There's lots more, but, yes, it's not really just a loot game, not by a long shot (if you'll excuse the tactical pun).