Intentional or not, I kinda like it how it is so long as people aren't losing artifacts who are present at the time of the captain/lighthouse death that earned them. For the players that have logged off or purposely left the area, I see no harm
Agreed.
In my experiences:
Captains can possibly yield more than 1 artie for multiple people (meaning I and another person both got 1 drop.)
Captains can possibly drop an artie on the ground (rarely seen, haven't seen more than 1 at a time.)
Lighthouses can possibly drop arties on the ground (I've seen anywhere from 0 up to 5.)
In reference to the 5 that dropped at once, that happened only once. Regularly, I'll see between 0-3.
In my opinion, it isn't hurting anything! If these are indeed dropped from players that left, well then, yay.