I'm going to end this debate right now. If exotics were meant to be "earned" then each exotic would have a bounty attached to it that must be completed to acquire.
Not all exotics have bounties
Not all exotics are earned
Ball is in your court "Earners"
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Another question only for the "Earners": Rewards are supposedly "earned" if they were received after completing a difficult challenge (Nightfall, Raid boss drop, exotic bounty, etc) and not "earned" if they were acquired "without much effort" (Xür, AFK/AFC/poor performance in multiplayer, etc). Who would have rightfully "earned" their Thorn between: -A Voidwalker who perform well in the Crucible and uses Void weapons all the time (Truth, Sword Breaker, Atheon's Epilogue) that managed to complete the Thorn's "500 Void kills" bounty step with little effort (he didn't modify his usual tactics/setup) and -A Gunslinger who also perform well in the Crucible but only had one Void weapon (Fusion Rifle), wich took him more efforts to complete the same Thorn's "500 Void kills" bounty step (he had to keep an eye on special ammo drops and rely solely on his close-range Fusion Rifle)? Both, the Voidwalker or the Gunslinger?