Well, there is no limit on items in-game, so you still get stuff, and there IS trading if you want. Alternatively you can go actual fighting servers, cap points, snipe faces, heal noobs? :P
I personally don't enjoy games after they have swayed into a completely different direction of heading. Although, it is a AAA title for free... Worth trying atleast.
I agree that Valve has been reaching a little too far in its attempts to profit more off of TF2, but its those profits that allow TF2 to be awesome. And Valve has done an excellent job in making it so that you can play the game without doing anything related to trading. So really. It's free. Go stab some people in the back (literally).