Just my two cents, but currently expressed anxiety about time-exclusive cosmetics seems to be a temporary symptom of the Halo playerbase’s -Yoink!- voyage into F2P transaction-supported MP. For 2 decades, completionism in collecting cosmetics has been an actual attainable possibility. Now for the first time, it may not be possible for the majority of the player population, and that’s an unfamiliar feeling for us. But it’s only a matter of time until everyone either:
(a) gets to a certain point in the future where they look back at all the missed items and accept that “I’ll never be able to collect them all anyway”, and/or
(b) accepts Halo MP as participating in a funding model typical of numerous MP mainstays in the market.
There’s another factor: volume. As time goes on, the sheer growing library of cosmetics will dull the FOMO of missing out on any single particular item as it constitutes a lesser and lesser percentage of the full body of items to collect over time.
So I don’t think we need to be discouraged. As with most other things in life: we each have a Time account and a Money account in the Gaming Bank. If we don’t have enough in one account to afford a certain item, c’est la vie and we move on. And that may be a healthy thing for Halo: without the allure of collection completionism, the game has to stand even more on its gameplay alone. I’m optimistic!