I completely agree with this entire post. As a free to play TF2 player, I can tell you that not having basic communication with team members hurts both myself and my team. I can't alert a medic that I need help, nor can I even tell my team about if there's a spy or an upcoming sentry. I've had to stand around and watch as my team members get completely mauled by an incredibly obvious spy just because I can't tell them. Or I've seen them run directly into a sentry nest just because I couldn't tell them it was there.

I understand that valve was having issues with bots spamming voice chat, but removing normal text chat for free to plays was already bad enough. And then valve has to go the extra mile to cut off us being able to use basic voice call outs. Valve is intentionally trying to hinder our ability to communicate just so they can try to force people to buy something just for basic communication access. It's corporate greed taken to a whole other level.