They are simply in the way.
If you really want to "make Elite harder" then remove the thing that would allow you to apply any status at any time.
It's also equally annoying when I spend my time fighting with my pillow of a weapon (Because they get so much more hp) and I see nothing but vials in all my treasure boxes.
The main reason of this would be to NOT have my rewards be taken up by vials, so I can go "Oh boy! All that work for NOTHING!"
This would make for a rather radical change in gameplay, one that I can't really see myself supporting. I don't care for vials anyway, I mean they're not that useful most of the time, and they don't affect payout in the way that you claim they do (really they don't, it's been like that forever, a little something we call "RANDOM drops").
But what about health pills?
A difficulty level is for making things difficult, not different.
-1
What the hell, is it me or there is fest going on at suggestion forum.
The fest of sissypanties who are too weak to do elite mode, and are posting suggestions just to make it even harder for those who actually can do it?
Vials weren't really all too useful anyway, I see no point in this.