A lot of the fun in Destiny arises from powering through difficult content, and optimizing character and weapon strength to overcome challenges. Everyone plays Destiny differently, but I know there is a meaningful subset of the community that enjoys challenging themselves in this game. Currently in Destiny, this is offered through avenues like Dungeons and Raids which traditionally offer challenging encounters that require communication and solid play. However, for experienced players, self-imposed challenges like low-manning raids has evolved as a mechanism for these players to artificially increase the challenge of raid encounters, that would otherwise fall over easily without much effort or thought in a team of 6 guardians proficient with the content, and sufficiently over leveled. This fact is what makes contest mode so endearing when each new raid releases, as not only is it a mental challenge to figure out the mechanics, it's a gameplay challenge that forces players to consider their loadouts more carefully, and put more effort into their gameplay to get through the encounters. While I understand that this is the niche that Master mode of raids are supposed to fill, the rotating nature of master raids, and the fact that not all raids have a Master variant makes this suboptimal. Additionally, Master mode implements challenge through the addition of more champions and other modifiers to the raid, which, while clearly increasing the difficulty, also restricts loadouts based on the season in order to cover for these new enemies. I think Master mode is actually a good option, and don't necessarily knock it as a difficulty, but Contest mode implements difficulty in a different way, that adheres more closely to the standard raid experience. I definitely wouldn't advocate for all raids to be light restricted at baseline, many players don't enjoy the artificial increase in difficulty, and shouldn't be forced to participate in that beyond the opening 48 hours of the raid race for new raid releases. But following that time, leaving Contest mode as an optional modifier that can be toggled for all available raids would give players desiring a challenge a means to find that in a group environment, for whichever raid they want to interact with. From a loot standpoint, whether or not these raids offer anything more than normal raids is unimportant, aside from perhaps an emblem showing players that you've completed the raid with contest modifier activated (separate from the emblem awarded for completing the raid within 48 hours of release). Without any knowledge of development, I'm unsure how easy it would be to implement something like this, though I'd imagine it may be as simple as adding a difficulty option which restricts light level to 20 below the raid, without any other modifiers. This simple option would be amazing, as it would give some players a reason to come back and interact with the game during the midway point of this current, especially long season. Additionally, many players returning for the Final Shape will begin to make plans to try out the new raid in the first 48 hours, and as is, players that have never participated in a raid release have no way to practice for the difficulty level to expect. This option would allow players to introduce difficulty into raids that they know well, in order to experience the gameplay difficulty that raid releases offer. Overall, I think this additional wouldn't take anything away from the game, and if anything expands on the options players have to interact with the incredible content that has been made for this game over its lifespan. Regardless of whether this gets implemented, I appreciate you taking the time to read it!