No solo activity in the game will require or demand weapons of armor at the level cap either. It was way worse when you had to gather materials for weeks just to be able to fully upgrade a character and its weapons. That was insane. Remember the 21 ascendant shards per exotic armor piece or 18 for legendary gear piece plus all the materials? Or the 18 ascendant energies that a single legendary weapon demanded? In those days you could only get 2 per day, plus the ones you could get weekly at the VoG and on Nightfalls without any guarantees as to which, shards or energy, and we had no way of exchanging one for the the other anywhere either. It was a real grind upgrading stuff and reaching the level cap was a nightmare. Now you do 1 top level activity and is guaranteed to reach the level cap of one weapon or piece of armor of choice. Not to mention that now any decent (top level) gear already comes maxed out in terms of light level and only requires you to unlock it's perks.