Coming from a WoW background..I would have to disagree with all of the points you make. For starters, with regards to your third point, for example, in Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, you could easily see the progression of a person by what their gear looked like. You could tell they got item drops from bosses that yielded a piece of gear, and you could see how far the person has been in the raid..very easily. They had armor sets, and being able to see which pieces they had was invaluable. It had more players than Destiny, many times over, and not once do I recall people pissed their character looked/had the same gear as another player...it was the look of the gear itself that people cared about. It was the tiered armor for their class...that's all that mattered. Who cares if you look the same as another character? However, for the other points, as to why you need raid gear to reach the highest level...well..that's pretty much the point of the raid itself. Only the best gear should reside in the highest difficulty of the current content..ergo, those that have it have the highest (in this case, Light) level. We busted our rumps to get the gear? Valid point. But this game has ties to MMOs and that's the point..to grind. Grinding gets you gear, reputation, marks, etc... I recall in other games, not just WoW, where I would grind for months to get an enchantment that was replaced in the next expansion or tiered level of items..it happens. That's just part of the game. You think being Rank 3 with these factions today will have any merit this time next year? Or thereafter? Not likely..new items will come out, requiring higher ranks with factions, which require more grinding..it's the nature of the game.