faggetCan someone please tell me what has valve actually said about the future of comp tf2? because from what i've understood this is all happening based on some vague assumptions about what valve wants.
The real reason is that we want to grow our playerbase. We struggle to survive as-is, and there's a huge untapped player pool alienated by the fact that 5 out of 9 classes simply cannot be played competitively without unlocks.
Also consider that competitive TF2 has been the same game for the better part of a decade, and naturally the scene loses interest due to stagnation. Unlocks would help to disrupt the meta, which is a double-edged sword because our meta is the only enjoyable way to play the game.
Lastly there's the fact that Valve won't cater specifically to the competitive community. Weapon releases/re-balances are the only content updates our community can receive. Forgoing unlocks is basically the same as dropping all developer support aside from the occasional garbage class changes.