People have trust issues in CF.
They rather eat deaths than wait for their gear. They also rather go in with 1hp instead of heailng up and going to grab the gear. The imperials aren't only suspicious of the ragers, they're suspicious of each other looting each other's corpses to fill up any gear slots that were taken. Without a thief to peek and/or locate object, nobody can tell who took what unless they wear the gear.