Imagine this game had ranked matchmaking, and mods were gated the same way they are now. A group of players that place well and are in plat/diamond/master would have at most a single character they have their preferred mods on, and probably only one viable build for that character for a long time. Which means they can't flex if they want to be effective, they can't even change characters within their role, they're locked into one character for dozens of hours.
Really, think about how bad that is. Think about how much damage it does to the competitive scene to prevent players from switching picks or builds, to prevent them from having full access to competitive gameplay. I guarantee if the competitive scene is neutered like that, it won't attract high level players, which will drop retention and you'll end up with a dead game in 2-3 months like Battleborn.
I say all this because I like the game, and I want to see it succeed, and I've seen decisions like this cut multiplayer games off at the knees before. There's already a system of progressive unlocks for cosmetic items, you don't need to gate a core component of gameplay on top of that.
