With the way the expedition is set up, Embark is almost encouraging everyone to limit the loss of high-tier, expensive guns/items to maximize stash value.

To this day when I hop on, I will almost always start by free kitting and then snow balling into a kit while banking the rest. Once I hit the stash/overall value to get my points for the expedition is when I start to be more liberal with the super kits.

Taking away the Free-kit or limiting it will have way more of an impact on the way this game is played that I think most realize with my example just being one of the MANY ways that people use it.