Honestly, 20k in this game is nothing. At higher lvl you sell 2-3 weapons and you have your money back. Not every quest has to reward you with epic loot or money.
This one gave you a little more insight to scavs and what they did to Sandra and other people. Sometimes story > reward.
This has to be bugged. In my game quest objective told me to look for my gear, but after waking up I had everything, nothing was missing, not even money. So I just finished that quest as if nothing happened.
Your gear is in the room with the 4 guys in there. It's in a locker. I did the fight when I was still new to the game, and think less than lev 20, the fight was tough without gear, so had to rush to the locker grab my stuff, equip it then fight.
Well, actually...
If you go for the option to use trader's braindance-set instead of your own, V would get knocked out and then would be forced to fight his/her way out of "Scavengers"' den and to reclaim back his/her weapons and stuff.