I don't think the majority of 6s players understand how little some of these unlocks actually affect the game in terms of HL. From my 1 season of HL the only things worth banning are
- All the FULL sets
- Pocket pistol (and possibly atomizer)
- Wrangler (if not the rescue ranger), take 1 or the other, it's stupid playing against both
- Beggar's Bazooka
- Huo-Long Heater
- Vita-Saw
- Enforcer
- Reserve shooter
Vanilla weapons should never be banned and the bans shouldn't total 18 weapons. Maybe something like 5 for each team. When you start to take those 7 out of the game (similar to UGC whitelist. Also take note that people refuse to use reserve shooter out of pride and other similar weapons.) it plays normally and removing more weapons usually does nothing but screw over other players. If Robin wants quirky plays it won't come from banning every weapon that isn't vanilla, it will come from removing what destroys the game and allowing everything else. They are all side grades and the majority aren't even worth the swap.
Ex. You won't see any of the top plat snipers use sydney sleeper over stock/machina, you're just asking to lose to the other sniper if you do. Jarate makes them move into the fight and most snipers I've seen like to sit at the other end of the map. A close sniper is an easy sniper to kill.
I support this 9v9 lobby system but I think we need some of the well known HL players to chime in instead of speculating with 6s players that only have HL pugs experience or think it's a glorified pub. It's a whole different experience.