Re: items in play vs keeping them in your hand
 

Yeah, the people I played with was under the same impression as you at first, when I read the rules properly and told them about what I figured on the items they were quite surprised. But it really makes the game more flexible to me, giving more choices on what to do and also makes trading more viable, same with thieves having more to steal etc.

Only downside is that it means less charity phases, which makes the person who is losing getting less free stuff to catch up to the rest, but overall it's still better imo. :p