The answer is... Complicated. Some of the Crucible changes are poor design, because they split up the player base - never good, and also foolish on the business side of things. I'm not sure if you can get the 34 TTK blue stuff or not, but if you can it may make a difference as the impact of strength et al varies with level (requiring 60 per tier at 40). As much as the pulse rifle changes annoy me, though, I can't get up in arms about a balance change, because balance must come first. You're mistaken about Iron Banner and Trials, however - those are very much endgame, specifically, they're endgame PvP, which is a different ecosystem with different standards of entry from endgame PvE. All that said, there's a reality here to consider: in games like Destiny, keeping up on the expansions (which TTK is, while TDB and HoW are content packs) is part of the price of admission. Certain things cannot be designed for both people who have it and people who don't. The question you have to ask yourself is if you're willing to pay that price.