You play more difficult content so you can earn better gear drops. From my understanding, the systems that will be in place with Edge of Fate will guarantee gear drops of a certain tier depending on the level of difficulty. Here is where I think your biggest mistake in reasoning is: [quote]Yes, world tiers drop slightly stronger gear—but not enough to justify the extra [b][i]grind[/i][/b]. [/quote] [quote]Bungie’s devaluing player time in a big way here. The higher you climb, the more you realize the [i][b]grind[/b][/i] isn’t for better gameplay—it’s just for slower dopamine hits.[/quote] You keep calling it "the grind", and you keep acting as if it is mandatory to "grind". Except it isn't. It's the players who choose what to play and when to play. Many players will probably progress to the point where they can comfortably play at higher World Tiers through casual play alone. They highlighted that by making it to power level 500, you can start earning Tier 5 Gear from Portal activities. I'll see how it works out when the Expansion releases. I won't make any definitive judgments until then.