That's true, but I think people would be less upset if they were actually running it, you know? Like I fell off like legit six or seven years ago when there was a promised Heavy Update 2, and I came back a few months ago to find that that was still MIA. And that kind of inaction is kind of why fans find themselves making these kinds of projects in the first place. So this does still feel hypocritical, even if they are entirely within their rights to do it.
I mean couldn't they just still make their own "class base" shooter in S&box without the TF2 IP involved? So you get the enjoyment of those tropes while not "stepping on the toes" of Valve and out compete the game.
Edit: hell it would even let them try new and different things with the formula. Change up the look of the game maybe even bring it closer to the classic TF look.
Say what you will, I had more fun with the item servers being down than I have in many years. It felt like an unplanned community event or something to me, shit was awesome.
(Point taken that it literally only happened due to Valve being negligent though)
How dare valve take issue with these strong independent modders lifting assets from their retail product to use in their recreation of their retail product.