In terms of gear and excitement, year 1 was infinitely more fun. If you look at old videos of gjallarhorn, vex, icebreaker, fatebringer, black hammer, etc drops, there are several videos of people screaming and yelling. Although I never yelled, when a drop like this occurred for me, my heart rate increased and I did feel excited when something I've grinded for for weeks/months finally dropped. Nowadays, that feeling is completely gone. Drops from TTK and WotM have no effect on me. It's all infusion material. Exotics are even worst off. They're so easily obtainable that any exotic drops feel like legendary drops. I think this is the point OP was trying to make. End game gear doesn't feel like end game gear anymore. You can easily pick up some of the best gear in the game within hours of initially playing the game. I personally feel that end game weapons should feel more powerful than other weapons. That grind and the luck needed was annoying, for sure, but they could have easily worked around that instead of changing it completely. Make Xur rotate gear instead of seemingly being random. Make raid drops increase the rate of gear you don't already have. Either way, year 1 was overall more exciting when it came to raid and exotic drops.