Can’t pick the lock? Maybe it’s rusted shut.
That sounds suspiciously like a variant of quantum ogres.
It's funny you should say that. I sometimes refer to this approach as "Schroedinger's Lock". I started applying it because of games that have "x-in-6" or "x-in-12" skill systems. It makes no sense to me that a person with a given level of skill at lockpicking should have a 7/12 chance of picking any lock in the world. If you go to a locksmith and say "I've got a such-and-such model lock I need open", they're not going to say "well I can do it on a good day". They're going to say "yes" or "no". The important variable is what kind of lock it is, so it makes way more sense to me to say that 7/12 skill rating means that any given lock the character encounters is going to have a 7/12 chance of being one they have the skill to open. I call it "Schroedinger's Lock" because what kind of lock is on the door isn't determined until the die is rolled.
The same logic applies to most skill checks. There's some variance from skill to skill, but people who are good at something tend to be consistently good at it. Everyone has off days, but not to anything like the kind of variance that D&D skill checks tend to produce. Their performance is much more likely to be determined by external factors.