*sigh* I really don't get the notion that them giving away bags of loot somehow loses them money.
First: giving away digital items, at this point, costs them nothing. [And don't give me the "development costs" argument. The development for these giveaways was done and paid for years ago. At this point, it just takes someone a few minutes to set it up using the existing tools.] Somehow, people seem to think that these are, somehow, lost sales. But that presumes that those people would have bought that stuff, were it not for the give-away. That's not a rational argument in any way. I know I wouldn't have bought the 940 MC, plus other gewgaws, I gained from loot bags if there was no event. [I certainly would not have bought five freakin' yellow radio warhorns. Curse you, RNG!] I probably would've spent about half the time playing, bought nothing with real money and been able to say that I have a real life.
I suspect most others would be the same.
Which gets to the second point: giving away digital items, in combination with sales, most likely makes them money. No, not everyone spent money during this thing. But I'm willing to bet more people spent money this past week than they would've without the event. I know I did. While I don't have access to PGI's books, I do have one piece of evidence that shows that these events are worthwhile for them: they keep having them. Even with this game moving into maintenance mode, they're still running these things. If they weren't profitable, they'd have already stopped.
These giveaways are marketing strategy, pure and simple. You ever go to some of these conventions, where marketers from numerous companies show up with booths, giving away trinkets to draw people in? Well, this is PGI's version. And at least they don't have to pay a bill to some printer. And the junk doesn't fill up an office drawer. Not too bad a deal, overall.
Now, if only I could give away these yellow radio warhorns...