maybe it's my thinking that's broken then. when i first re-joined TF2 i opened a crate and got a purple effect scout hat. to me it was useless. the 8 strange weapons I was offered for it though had use so I did the trade. it was probably a "bad trade" in relation to what it was "worth" but I got what i wanted for it.
I don't use my strange weapons to show off... I use them to count kills. my strange Brass beast has a few kills under it's belt... my only problem it it doesn't count robot deaths in MvM... there needs to be a strange part for that.