They could have just, you know, added an option to tack on another exotic shard to reach year 2 status. But no, first they made them obsolete so people would focus on new exotics, and once people realized those weren't as good, Bungie banked on them wanting their year 1 exotics back by re-releasing them with tiny changes in attempt to justify a re-release (that would normally just be a weapon patch). It's not like they hadn't planned on re-releasing year 1 exotics.