I don't believe that we are really ascendant. We put a wisper of Crota's soul into a piece of the former crystal to get into the "ascendant realm" but we really have no clue what became of it afterward. In my eyes the crystal was what the gate saw as ascendant, we were basically a +1 to the party. Otherwise I feel that we could open the gate at will without the need of runes and relics. (which we did only once)