Loot only based best gear hurts the game.

First of all gear fear, why you made the best items loot only, is unnecessary. When we die we pay for it in a much more valuable way, losing time waiting on and riding in helicopters. Time being the most valuable resource.

Second, loot based gear creates a gear scalper economy. People are going around taking all the good loot, ensuring the boxes are almost always empty when you find them, and then doing you the "favor" of selling what they took from under your nose to you for a huge markup. You're enabling this with the GZW discord black market.

Third, gear scalper economy screws casual and average players. Whenever you go by a loot crate it's usually empty because people are scalping the stuff on the black market. I have about 250 hours in 0.2, go by loot crates when I'm in the area, occasionally make special trips, and have found 2 AK-308 rifles and 1 PVS-31. Either the box is empty or there's mid-tier crap in it like an AK74.

Fourth, gear scalper economy is pointless. Alright so Jimbo nabbed 4 PVS-31s he's going to sell to the poor bastards who can't find any because Jimbo took them, for $30k each. There's nothing for Jimbo to spend that money on. All the good ammo and equipment is loot only. Which Jimbo is getting all of anyway.

Fifth, high value loot has limited value. Because you can't buy anything really good from vendors. But you can buy it from Jimbo, and he ends up with $2.7 Billion at wipe and everyone else has a worse experience for it.

Sixth, there's gear that might as well not even exist. You wasted your time making it as far as the average player is concerned. All that time making the PVS-31? Wasted. Most of us will get to use them once or twice, and even then we'll be so worried about losing the damn things we won't be able to enjoy it. Absolute fail.

The solutions: 1. Buyable good gear. Don't pace the campaign so everyone is tier 2 until it's almost over, and offer good gear for sale. 2. Cut scalpers out and let us buy the gear from vendors for reasonable prices. This reduces the incentive to farm the hell out of the loot spawns, increasing the chances of average players actually finding something good. Then even if all you find is mid-tier crap, you can still sell it and buy something nice.

The death disincentives are already there, and this gear fear goal is just making the game worse because of the way it disproportionately impacts availability for the average player. It also doesn't disincentivise dying so much as it makes using the stuff less fun or keeps you from using it because you're TOO afraid to lose it because it's almost irreplaceable.