TLW, thorn, and hawkmoon all have something in common. Their exotic perks revolve around dealing increased damage. Especially in year one, but even now. Unfortunately, it's exceptionally hard to balance primaries when three of them have bonuses that can significantly and consistently shorten your time to kill. It was even more blatant on thorn due to the dot also preventing regen and adding information not normally able to be know as far as exact position of your opponent. It just so happened that all of the exotics that had bonuses that significantly shorten time to kill in year one were hand cannons. Suros had that, too, but it was quickly changed due to the overwhelming use of it in crucible, coupled with a general nerf to auto rifles. It's the same now but to a lesser degree. TLW still has a higher fire rate than any other hand cannon due to its exotic perk, resulting in a faster kill time. Hawkmoon can still two shot headshot and the forgiving nature of triple luck in the chamber bullets means that even a body shot can do as much as a precision. Thorn still adds damage to every shot you land, even nerfed, no other hand cannon gives you bonus damage to [i]every single shot[/i]. In conclusion, buff auto rifles damage but not their range.