Absolutely let the Beta testers keep gear. To have to grind through it again to to nab what I have already put hours into would feel like a complete waste of time. Most people would really hate starting off like this, Everyone had a chance to pre-order, even now. Players would never "start off the same" for very long as everyone has different time constraints. A teenager would have plenty of time and surpass many very quickly for example. Let us continue on with our characters where we leave them at the close of the beta Bungie! I do not want to spend the first 20 hours playing the same thing again!