I believe that weapon ascension and perk pre-rolling were both implemented to keep players engaged until tTK. Clearly, new weapons were a weak spot, but most players (like me) didn't care too much about it because we got to dust off a lot of stuff we stopped using, and we also got to gamble for better rolls (which ultimately made weapon drops less fun). If tTK has enough fun stuff, personally I won't miss most of the old schtuff.