before you read my post please respect that I am just playing devil's advocate because i see some holes in what you're saying.
saamThere is no proof valve used any data from comp to make these changes.
there is no concrete proof, but there is secondary / circumstantial proof.
1. valve reads tftv (among others, like /r/tf2)
proof: jill posted in the forums once (whether this is enough is not part of the discussion)
proof: b4nny and slin (& i think sigafoo too) confirms this is a reality when they went to visit valve headquarters.
2. b4nny has had influence in valve's balancing
proof: he has said that he had been asked to submit ideas for weapon changes and etc. he also had an anecdote about preventing the reserve shooter from being buffed.
2a: whether you think b4nny is the right person doesn't matter, he is a point of "data from comp" used to make changes.
saamAdditionally, we just played a whole season with dumb unlocks, and in the month and a half long offseason not a single weapon was changed.
1. this is not wrong, but why is this right? valve didn't promise when they update things. b4nny has seemingly supported the idea that they like to release their weapon balances and changes in major updates instead, so with the pyro update supposedly on the horizon, doesn't reason favor that they are waiting to ship all their changes then instead of now?
2. regardless of whether point 1 was right or wrong, we also know that the TF2 team isn't very big. Therefore the pace of their work will be somewhat slow. so is it not possible that valve is just slow, rather than they are ignoring us?
saamValve not caring
i'm curious what your opinion on competitive being in the game means, because if they don't care what exactly was the reason they put it in then?