What you're asking for are more red treasure boxes. Red treasure boxes do exactly what you describe, and have a chance to replace green treasure boxes.

That being said, I would assume green treasure boxes drop consumables as a way to balance loot. Luckily, rarities spawn independent of the standard loot, so only getting a consumable drop doesn't remove your chances at a spark of life or an orb of alchemy.

It can feel a bit lame, but this is more a testament at how valuable players see consumables compared to what the game values them at. I believe the game values consumables at about 5 crowns plus 10*tier number. Tie 1 vendors sell them for 50 crowns, Tier 2 vendors sell them for 150 crowns, tier 3 sell them for 250 - compare this to their vendor/buy prices for gear, where they sell recipes at 10 times the amount they buy the full item for. We as players, however, find 25 crowns to be infinitely more useful than a tier 3 shock vial, but alas it is what it is.

I consider heat and consumables rather useless in a run, but at least I can use the consumables if I want. Heat doesn't really have a use after you are maxed out.

So basically making consumables drop like rarities? While that sounds neat, I will stick to saying they should be assumed to be dropped at 1/10th of their vendor cost. To the game, it's dropping about 25 crowns by giving you a poison vial, but it's really not all that helpful unless the player actually has a use for them.

Instead of making them an additional loot pool like rarities, why not make rarities spawn more frequently (but in lesser numbers) from consumable boxes? Break a green box, get a freeze vial, but also a fire crystal. For orbs, have them drop 3 depths higher than their current position as a "downgrade". It'll mess up the multiples of 3 for the fire crystals, but it makes it more dynamic while not changing the overall loot of the level (rarities are bound to you, and will be useful pretty much only to you).

I can understand why you want to not have them drop from loot boxes. It will increase the chance of getting rarities, but in my case, will reduce my chance of survival. A fire barrier or a health capsule would mean more to me than a few measly crowns. I like completing missions in Elite and sometimes missions I am under-leveled for. In cases like mine, those consumables can tilt the odds in my favor. It means that I can have a chance to reach loot boxes that I shouldn't have been able to reach and complete levels that are just very difficult for me. You can want higher rarity drops but don't think that no body uses consumables or downright rely on them. Loot boxes are a safe and fast way to get a consumable. At second life, 1% health, and every enemy is a risk to lose all your progress, a health capsule is a godsend. I'd even consider a barrier a good save in situations like that.

They could have it so that at the end of boss battles, they only give you red loot boxes. Bosses usually end with the mission or will lead you to a terminal, so it is relatively safe to not have consumables then. I'm not counting arenas however, arenas are are sometimes in between or at the start of Arcade runs. If you are down to your second life and complete an arena, and get no consumables, I personally consider myself a dead man for the next level, especially in Elite modes.

I like the idea of them never ONLY dropping consumables. But note that some people value those consumables, so let's not remove them entirely. I kinda need those consumables.

That's good! I just wanted to stress how much I value those consumables. I did understand that they do not want to remove them completely. That's why I said I liked their idea to have loot boxes not only drop consumables. It's the best of both worlds. But I wanted to make sure it was understood that consumables are valuable. This topic is a good catcher for those who think otherwise, and I like to let them know the upside to consumables. I won't lie, it was pretty dumb of me to put such a long paragraph to stress this, but it is true though! You've gotta give me that! The other half makes sense at least too.