TobYour logic is way off. You compare the weapons used in the game to the clothes of the players playing it? That makes no sense. It's not like Robin said he wants people to use different unusuals. Robin wanted a more counter based playstyle. Like in Dota where you pick a counter to the other's team composition or buy different items based on the builds of others. It's not like Dota requires no skill at all simply because you counter things with certain picks.
They run a rescue ranger? You run a direct hit. That kind of stuff is what he wanted to see.
Sure, it's not how we ended up playing competitively because it's just not how we enjoyed to play. But it's not like that was too much of him to expect. He envisioned that for TF2. We simply took a different route.
Yeah, my bad, I was trying to think of a sports metaphor, but I guess there isn't one because something as stupid as a counter system doesn't exist in real life sports. You either play better or you lose. Sure, games like Dota require a kind of skill, but it's not exactly an interesting one to watch in action. "Oh, they picked the right heroes to directly counter our team? Welp, guess we're fucked!" Watching Overwatch matches and knowing how the next two minutes are going to play out because one side went for a dive comp while the other went with quad tank is boring as shit. And then the rules constantly change and the meta shifts; things that once worked no longer do, watching old games starts feeling like a waste of time, and mechanical skill and teamplay get less relevant. It's about who spends more time in scrims doing what would have once been stupid shit to see if it works now.
Again, I don't understand why this system is so prevalent in esports. Honestly, I feel like it just makes bad players think they can beat good ones if they just read the meta thoroughly enough, letting them direct their salt at other people even when they play like shit. Or maybe people really do just like not knowing what the fuck is going on since the rules are different today than they were yesterday.