So the exotic reset is happening and i expect it to happen anyway but let me warn you this can't stay. Because it makes people feel as if they DE-progressed (this is terrible for this type of game) and I'm here to offer a smart soloution. First off losing all you perks is just stupid and that goes immediately as players get effectively a hard reset just to compete. Yes people will do it anyways but remember this game has 4 sequals and many updates. If you keep resetting this will ruin longevity of the entire franchise. Its good to see that you care about the new players but you currently are disregarding your current players.
Theoretically if this system stays i could avoid destiny 2 and 3 if the character ports (not sure if this will happen or not) and come back on the final DLC of destiny 4 and immediately be just as powerful as the current players. The truth is new players need to become powerful but the current players became powerful to just become weak immediately. (This is bad for a DLC every 3 months.)
So a fair solution. If you want to upgrade a weapon you pay 2 shards and glimmer. Maybe materials as well. But your weapon stays at whatever upgrades it has before. Therefore no one loses progress and feels neglected.
Another thing is that remember the current players own a lot of exotics. And will need a lot of shards to upgrade them all. They will be occupied with grinding and happy knowing that they won't get reset and will work to get them up to the current weapon power which should take them about 3 months so don't worry about them not having enough to do. Extra grinding isn't necessary. Xp for weapons is a thing of the past and motes of light could have more use or reforging happen outside the iron banner.