If you do an activity you are rewarded at the end with an item which is earning. If you do weeklies you earn strange coins so when you buy it from Xur you earned it. So both ways are earning it On the other hand you could look at like this and say RNG isn't earning it's just about being lucky. Or buying stuff from Xur isn't earning because they are so easy to do a drunk Down syndrome kid could beat it so you aren't really earning anything because they are so easy and strange coins are too easy to get. Which ever way you look at is you still earned your gear/weapon. If you care that some random person online thinks you didn't earn your gear/weapons maybe online games aren't for you