Aah, okay, died to rivers so long ago I forgot. I ended up believing swimming naked is the best although I guess there is the bouyancy problem if you need to return quickly but then you need to dump stuff, but read that your character never returns to the same spot, so risk/reward of deciding whether dropping loot to get to portal quickly or taking a chance there might be an alternative path that risks losing everything anyway when you get overwhelmed because your character is still on a timer.

So ultimately there is always that constant calculation deciding if you really need this loot or if what you have is worth the risk that you can take everything you have but can lose it all on a bad decision.

Most labs are samely, but there are a few labs that are -at least I find- interesting by the enviromental story-telling and it is probably the most combat dense areas in regards to the danger to reward.

I at least have to be vigilant I don't walk into a "portal room", a zombie army ( which are usually higher tiered) of what ever weird stuff the lab was used for

Yeah, there is just too much stuff in them, I have to really up my loot hoarding tendencies and have to force myself to take note of interesting stuff, only take low weight items or items I would need for crafting. Still doesn't stop me from dragging 1000 unit loot piles outside to the entrance of a lab for later loot runs.

Essentially sky islands seems to me the equavalent to me running labs, but you are restricted a lot more to one loot run and have to consider taking stuff and resolving yourself to returning with even less if condition calls for it because if the decision is not made you can end up returning with nothing and not being able to return to collect it as that location will not be visited again.