Another important aspect that I hope they adopt from TF2 is that even if you use default items (e.g. weapons) you will not be in disadvantage when playing with users that spent money on items.
You start with the same gear, and anything else you can get is sitting around the level to be picked up by everybody.
If they do have weapon skins carry into the game, Epic will have to be gatekeeper on approving all of them. If not, you'd have people reskinning their rocket launcher to look like it's something else, with negative gameplay effects.
Perhaps we'll see two tiers of aesthetic mods? Ones that anybody can create and use in their local / self-hosted games, and others that have been approved for online play?