Not sure if it has been brought up yet, but I believe you actually get the IB gear/weapons to drop once you've actually hit the Vendor Rank/Purchase requirements. That's basically how it has been going for me so I could be wrong on my assumption here(or I'm totally an idiot and everyone already knows that this is a thing). Also, why are you surprised? These are the same guys who couldn't fix the glitchy Praetorians outside the Vault of Glass after nearly more than two years. [spoiler]Personally, what I think Bungie should implement from now on in the Crucible is a gift/card reward system where after each match you get a voucher for a randomly rolled item, much like what they currently have in regards to the loot table yet mixed in with the Sterling Treasure mechanic, but rather [b][i][u]each[/u][/i][/b] player gets one rather than just two or three people and then there is a chance that you get a bonus drop on the rewards screen. It's obvious that the dev team could care less whether or not you participate in a match as long as you are a number in their statistics. [/spoiler]