I can certainly see the angle of your reasoning on cost there: perceived value. My own argument would be that POE and TOO should be compelling enough stand on their own; they shouldn't be forms of blackmail to enjoy the rest of the game at max level, as planetary farming used to be. I don't play Trials myself (and I likely wouldn't PvP at all if the game didn't effectively force me to), but while no doubt some people would cry if you, say, even removed Etheric Light completely from the rewards table there, I do doubt there'd be any significant dip in attendance. TOO has plenty of stuff to go for in it--the emblems, the weapons, the unique-looking armor, the Lighthouse. People are going to want that crap no matter what. And it would probably be as popular even if there were even less visible rewards than that. It appeals to a certain mindset that simple gear rewards don't factor much into, as I see it. I could be wrong and frequently am, of course. POE, on the other hand, lost its novelty pretty quickly and completely fails to have a reward structure that justifies running it over and over again. You're probably right that removing Etheric Light from the reward table (or giving a better alternative) there would lead to a large drop in attendance. On the other hand, why is that a bad thing? If it's bad content it shouldn't be rewarded by repeated visits, and we players shouldn't be punished by having to make repeated visits. I can easily imagine a reward structure that would make POE worth replaying. They just didn't include one. The Etheric Light thing is just a cheap artificial extender on it. I frequently wonder if these guys ever actually play any other games that learned these lessons years ago. Some days I even wonder if they play the one they're making.

I fully agree that the new endgame content should be able to stand on its own. But I've also seen many posts from people who feel like they can't get their hands on enough Etheric Light. They, for whatever reason, simply can't gather it in the quantities that some players do. This idea allows them another avenue to grab another few using marks that aren't being used for anything else. It would also give players who didn't purchase HoW another way to acquire this material. Players hated, I mean DESPISED, farming for planetary materials so Bungie implemented a marks for mats exchange. Farming those materials was a very simplistic task that anyone could do but players hated it with a passion because it was mind numbingly boring. Etheric Light can't even be farmed easily unless you can gather a group of players to take on PoE or ToO. It's much harder to acquire than planetary materials, which would imply that an exchange would suit this material very well. Lastly, you know as well as I do that the bad content in this game, cough cough crucible cough cough, gets plenty of repeat visits because the sheer number of players in this game makes this possible. I'm simply creating another avenue for Etheric Light to be used by players to help if they've had a bad week in PoE or ToO or just to supplement the poor bastards like me who didn't/won't buy the DLCs.

Oh, for sure. And man am I fed up with people who can't see a situation other than their own on this issue. I'm frankly very lucky to be in a situation where I even CAN farm for this at all, regularly. So many posts amount to "I got mine, so f*** you". Just about every other thing that has historically been required (the lone exception being Crota materials) to upgrade gear, has been gettable through multiple activities that could be soloed. Why they thought abandoning that was a fine idea is beyond me.