Fallout 3 containers permanently empty - even from Vanilla records?

[Dahveed]

So I came across this weird bug recently...  Or at least I assume it must be a bug.

I'm making a mod to mess with chems and consumables, and I'm spreading them out to the world through loot lists, vendors etc and everything is peachy.

But I'm trying to get my new drugs (and some vanilla ones as well) spawn into the lockers of schools.  Indeed there is even a container called Locker01School, which is the base container for all the placed objects in Springvale school (near Vault 101) which I'm trying to put some chems and nuka cola stuff into.

Indeed, according to fo3edit (and the GECK too) there are already some random junk items which are supposed to spawn into these lockers in the base game... However when I try to test things out in the game, I enter the school and the lockers (ALL the lockers, every last one of them) is 100% empty at all times.  No vanilla stuff, none of my drugs, nothing.

Even when I disable literally every single .esp mod and DLC .esm file, I spawn into a fresh brand new game, level 1, using coc Vault101Exterior, tgm, then go to the school and.... literally every single locker is empty!  Every time, every single one, 100% empty, no exception.  Despite even the Vanilla container record having several leveled loot entries.

I'm completely baffled right now.  I'm at the cusp of finishing my mod, just trying to find places in game to stash my loot, but I can't even do this simple thing, i.e., cram some of my crap inside a locker.  And now it seems even Bethesda's own developers couldn't figure it out either??? Like what the hell?  Why aren't any of these items showing up?

[Dahveed]

...and yes, in case you ask, I have indeed confirmed that the lockers placed in this school are based on the Locker01School container, having cross-referenced their console ID's in-game with their "placed object" IDs in xedit.  Every one of them has "Locker01School" as a base.