After upgrading to TFS 2015 we are seeing all users in the collection being displayed as options for the Assigned To fields of a Work Item.
In 2013 we had set an AL
In many organization, the work item type is shared across many teams. The old dropdown was long and was cluttered with people you would never assign a work item to. We heard a lot of requests to make assigning to people a much better experience.
We have changed the work item control to a MRU control so people you care about most show up immediately. And there is a "search more" option to find people which are not in the MRU yet.
We are aware that it is not possible anymore to restrict the list with the rules you define on the work item. It was an explicit design decision, and the rule is still enforced on save as you indicate.
Ewald Hofman - TFS Program Manager