As a long time player of TF2, I can say without a doubt that there is a strange "toxic optimism" that plagues the community.

The game might seem full of people, but most of the activity is from bots.
The updates might be a sign of Valve showing promise, but there hasn't been a single meaningful update since Jungle Inferno.

The main point I'm trying to make is that Valve doesn't care about TF2, yet we spend our money buying cosmetics and feeding their wallets for an equally neglected game.

I hate to say this, but this game is dying, and I'm tired of seeing people think it isn't. The only thing keeping this game from dying is the impact it had on generations of players. However, everything dies at some point, and if a game isn't well maintained by its developer(s), then it burns out.

If you want to play this game, go ahead, I recommend it, but for the love of god please don't give TF2 your money. If you do, you are literally saying to Valve that you do not care about the state of this game at all.

Because as long as we keep giving them our cash, they will continue to provide NOTHING to TF2.

Can't recommend with 70-80% of bots ruling over the player count. Practically unplayable.

I love this game and used to play it all the time when I was younger, but the game has been left to rot by Valve and is in an unplayable state still. I can't recommend it to new players and old players have nothing to return to.