Before you could still play nightfall, daily heroics, daily crucible etc as long as it was not a new strike or mission. You could also buy vendor weapons and gear. If you dont upgrade you cant even buy old gear or weapons. When i say %90 of the content, what I really mean is relevant content. You could also play any type of pvp game type you wanted, just not on the newest maps. I didnt buy TTK at first but the game was such a shell of a game I felt I had to if I wanted to continue playing what I had previously paid for.