I can agree with pretty much all of this. I still enjoy Destiny now and again even with all it's shortcomings, but it's always a shadow of what it once was.
We've always been playing on their terms, and the game was the most fun when we were playing on OUR terms. I remember when the loot cave became a social phenomenon, and even though it was pretty pointless, it was still super fun to do! They were always quick to fix things like that, but never so quick to fix game breaking raid bugs.
All of the best memories I have from the game that I talk to friends about are from year 1, from the cosmodrome, from VoG, from Crota, hell I even have some decent Skolas and PoE memories. I don't really have any meaningful memories from Year 2 after TTK dropped. The game felt like it became too serious and took itself too seriously. They took our favorite weapons and ways to play and said "you have to play like this now, with only these weapons."
With every step forward they made in the game, they took two steps back... The same is true for Age of Triumph, sure we technically get our favorite gear returning, but gated through unnecessary means. Where the game is coming to an end, I have to wonder what the point of continuing to gate progress every week is. These are my biggest worries for Destiny 2... With all the gates in the game, the loot doesn't really seem worth it, I don't mind grind, but rolling the dice and then not being able to roll it again for another week or more isn't grinding, it's literally waiting... That's the point where I stop playing, when I have a goal, but Bungie tells me I can't play towards my goal, instead I have to wait and do something else until that time comes...
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This ^^. You are 100% correct.