The big reason looting has become more popular is because of estates. Before, looting was rare because a TO was never out of the question. Now, with lack of nobles, we can be fairly certain that many regions will not be TOed, so one no longer cares for sympathy and one tries to deny his opponents in the only way other than TOs: revolt.
^^^ This.
Very, very few realms actually try and TO regions during a war anymore. Those that do universally fail to actually make progress. TOs used to be SOP. YOu would almost always march on your enemy, and TO as you went. That rarely happens anymore. So you loot the regions clean, and move on. Of course this damages the roads, and slows *everything* down...
