Competitive IS the future of TF2. In the server browser you might see only 50-1000 people at a time trying to play Competitive mode but there is at least 200 TF2 competitive players circumventing the official system to play professional TF2 in a way that existed since at least 2008. The biggest problem right now is that community servers and Casual are siphoning players away 20,000 or so players from the competitive scene that could be filling the competitive matchmaking lobby. Once Valve finishing weapon balancing and does away with Casual and community servers then there will finally be an uptake of competitive TF2 (and a spike of viewers on Twitch, increased player count and revenues, and so on).