From steam forums:
1. I HAVE read the complete Mannconomy FAQ, I know everything and this is no unfounded speculation
2. Before you rate or flame, READ THROUGH to the end.
3. I will try to explain the issue here in layman's terms to you.
Understood? Okay, then let's begin.
There's right now a huge turmoil on the forums, confusion about whether you can only buy or find certain items - whenever anyone voices concerns about anything, they are quickly shut down with "OMG ITS ALL STILL FREE".
That is not the case in practice.
Why I say "in practice"?
Check out this page again:
http://teamfortress.com/mannconomy/item_sets/
If you look at it, you'll see that these set bonuses only count if you wear the respective hat of that set, too.
All of the hats are currently priced at 17,99?/$ (? is even more, 25$).
And even months after this update, they'll still be at 5-10 bucks.
Before you jump up my throat yelling "OMG NOOB BUT THESE CAN BE FOUND INGAME FOR FREE!!!!!!11", take a moment and THINK about the realistic chances.
The chances to find a hat beforehand were about 3,5% every 4 hours and approx 20 minutes. That is abysmally low.
The chance to find one of the 5 new hats is even lower. We are talking about almost lottery-jackpot-low here. No one knows the exact numbers now, but the new drop system didn't improve that a lot.
"BUT TRAEDING!!" - do you HONESTLY believe that anyone in their right mind will trade you any of these 5 hats for anything else than another one of the 5 hats?
No.
These hats now have a very real value, a reallife money value. If you find a Grenadier's Softcap - congratulations, you just randomly found 18 bucks. Or the equivalent thereof.
I hope you're beginning to understand the problem here: There are SET BONUSES - with GAMEPLAY-CHANGING attributes. This means hats are no longer merely cosmetic.
You want the set-bonus? You will have to PAY. (or get insanely lucky, which can take months or YEARS.)
Realistically speaking, if you want one of the set bonuses (for example I'm loving the Pyro set one), but don't have the according hat, you can either shell out 18 bucks now or wait for years to find this specific hat.
This is the issue. Right there. They are withholding gameplay changing content from you unless you're willing to pay insane prices at their store.
We need to PROTEST this development NOW. Before it's too late.
The whole system would be fine, as long as spending reallife money really only granted you cosmetic effects, but that is currently not the case.
We need to get these hats removed from the set bonuses, it's an obvious money milking mechanic.
Now that you've read through it all you're free to rate and comment.