Handing Items to NPCs
 

Currently looking into how we used to be able to trade with NPCs, I remember being able to give weapons/armor to non-kos NPCs without having to charm them but I can't find solid evidence yet.

Is this tied to not being able to recover weapons given to charmed pets?

You should probably find more information and speak to your fellow players before filing a bug report. We do not have time to do research, that's why these forums are here so that the players can assist us as much as possible to make informative bug reports.