I couldn't even collect the Dragon Set in the Campaigns, although it seemed quite feasible. Yes, the Dragon Utopias are more realistic. But in 3.0, they seem to have gone crazy, very often giving the same artifacts at once. I collected 5 artifacts on the Map of the Outlands that give +1 to creature speed, 4 more of some kind of artifacts, and 3 more...
Some Special Abilities are very strong and require good skills... Although I agree that it is not always possible to upgrade them, etc. I didn't attribute such mystical power to them. I never upgrade them myself ;) Unless it's in the Campaigns.
I didn't collect Special Abilities for anyone except Orcs and Necromancers... About Orcs, I'll say that having a Special Ability is very beneficial, but in principle, you can do without it... For Necromancers, a Special Ability is simply unnecessary unless you are only upgrading a pure warrior - which is simply not beneficial for Necromancers...