All Sandman balancing arguing aside, I was watching one of a couple dozen T2Tubers' "analysis" videos of the SDK because I was extremly bored and something piqued my interest while the guy was blabbering on. It related to this tidbit regarding the player items in the updated version of the Steamworks page for
"Distributing Source Engine Games / Mods".
Now as the paragraph suggests, this means that any TF2 offshoot that is created and decides to have a similar cosmetic system to the base game can, if they so choose, be integrated into the pre-existing Steam market structure that Valve has put in place for Vanilla TF2. What this means is that if you buy or have already bought something like the Tyrant's Helm from an official or unofficial seller like Scrap.tf then the developers of TFC, Open Fortress, etc can use that data to have it unlock unique items within their own games as well as the original.
Feel free to call me a conspiratorial loon, but this feels like a conscious decision to subtly extend the reach of their monetization casinos. If one of these new off-shoots built off the SDK gets super-popular then Valve is right there with the market integration, getting a nice cut from the increased demand that this new player stream would provide. They are essentially doing the old Wild West tycoon strategy of putting an interest or lease on massive amounts of potentially valuable land that could have rare ores in it, and when one of them does turn up gold, then the company comes in to start selling picks and housing to people.
This whole thing might seem far-fetched but there have been many cases in the past where TF2 becomes the guinea pig so that the employees at Valve can test out new ideas that are then rolled out to other products. CS:GO Operations, Lootcrates, and all the other junk had their roots in the gravel pits. If this venture proves successful then we may see Valve looking like Roblox which has this network of universal monetization. If you buy stuff with their "Robux" then you can use them on any other game built off their engine. Imagine in 2030, they give people the ability to purchase a universal loot-crate which can give you things on ANY steam product that decides to support it. Indies, AA, AAA, all being incentivized to work in the Steam market and add more content to it.
It's kind of a scary thought given the implications of the current unhealthy commercialization that the industry is already under. I hope to god I'm wrong.