Sauces? I've heard Luke, specifically, mention a few reasons behind the choice, yes, but nothing more "official" than that, and even then, that was pretty close to TTK's release (before all the backslash). However, to my knowledge, Bungie hasn't [i]officially[/i] defended the decision, in any capacity, and they [i]certainly[/i] haven't responded to any of the criticisms since TTKs release (many of which also already struck down Luke's initial arguments, as well). Again, though, Bungie [i]also[/i] initially defended their gear decisions in TDB, so it's still a fairly parallel situation. Plus, this time, they already set the precedent that they [i]would[/i] being gear forward, so there's that, too. XD