Nightfalls in general are just boring and pretty much requires every member to sit back and spam bullets at enemies for 30 minutes. This is because once you die, you get returned to orbit and all the time and effort is wasted. My suggestions would be to make nightfalls like any other strike and have checkpoints. I think this would allow for more freedom of weapons and tactics when playing the nightfall and would overall be a more enjoyable experience.
-
Nightfall is meant to be this way. It is supposed to be challenging. What you're describing already exists in the form of Weekly Heroic strikes.