We could have given a couple hats to veterans, but we couldn’t have let them decide which without creating an entirely new system for that. So we would have given random hats, and my money would be on those hats being the ‘wrong’ ones.
On paper, sure, but in practice not so much. An idea is much easier to come up with than a workable solution. Given the situation you propose had happened, the next complaint would be “I opened 100 Legend Emp Vaults but some players hoarded those and now have better chances of items from those, I want my Legend Emp Vaults compensated because it’s not fair I didn’t hoard like those guys did.”
Simply put, we had to draw a line in the dirt and move past it, which is what we did. It’s a shame for those who didn’t hoard boxes, but it genuinely isn’t the end of the world. There will be more boxes, more hats, skins and frames and all sorts introduced to the game going forward and people may still hoard boxes now and wait for those. We’re not going to add compensation every time we add something to the game for players who were there previously and did not hoard boxes. It’d be crazy.
It’s being discussed, for sure, and something I too (and many here) are very keen on putting in place. Watch this space.