Yeah, I personally hate how unbalanced this sounds. As long as I still have my VIP lots its all good I suppose.
Golden hoes is what I think sounds dumb, all you have to do is sit there and hit it a bunch. Its 100% garuntee to getting into the chest from what I've read here. Yeah I realize this isnt the final pluggin, but I really hope you are adding a chance feature just to make it that much harder. Also if you add a leveling system for lockpicking you might as well as add one for mining and lumber jacking.
Also I think making a block over a chest being illegal is really harsh, you could have it in a protected house with door closed but someone could still break glass and take advantage of that glitch. Locks would still serve a huge purpose, all the nomads who dont have Territories, and all the people building elsewhere for what ever reason.