It's not about "instant gratification" it's about creating a cohesive progression system. If new players are a tier or more behind, it fragments the community. Vendor gear goes to 31 precisely so that VoG isn't required for new players and they can jump into Crota. That means the majority of the community is progressing in one raid rather than players being split between two separate tiers. If you don't like that type of progression, you're playing in the wrong genre. MMOs like World of Warcraft wrestled with this years ago, when big expansions erased the progression of several tiers of raid content, and the game was far more successful for it. Edit: You also can't design a progression system based on friends carrying you through content not designed for you.