RNG is RNG. Random. There is no "earning" or "Xurning" and people just do this to feel better about themselves over a rare weapon.

They are earned, but just under a different set of rules. For example, let's say that you want the Gjallarhorn (or any other exotic for that case. But let's use the Gally for our example). You can get the Gjallarhorn in, hmm, let's say 3 different ways. #1. You buy it. You do the weekly with all three of your characters, if you have them at an appropriate level - that's 27 strange coins. It shouldn't take over an hour to get those coins, therefore if Xur is selling it, then it takes you less than an hour to get your Gjallarhorn. #2. You wait for it to drop. Whether from a boss or a certain chest, you are really, really hoping that it's gonna drop this time. You grind VoG and Crota on hard, week after week, you switch characters at the Gorgon chest to make it take up a little less of your time, hoping for the king of all rockets to grace you with its presence. You weather out Crota week after week, kicking his tiny little buttcheeks, waiting for the big one. And either you get it, or you don't, and you have to wait for another reset, another chance. You are in no way guaranteed that drop. It could find it's way into your hands the first time you open that exotic chest, as it did for my friend. Or your fourth time opening it, as it did for me. You could have opened it every day since release, you still don't have it yet. But when you have it, you can be sure as hell you earned it too. #3. You decode a purple engram and lo and behold, the Cryptarch for once in his useless life decoded it into an exotic (Patience and Time for me, whehey. Now if only I could snipe...) Once again, this engram dropped for you. Whether you were grinding strikes, or it just fell out of the heavens on patrol, you earned this engram, so whatever it turns into you earned as well. I can understand why people argue that RNG isn't earning, and technically speaking yeah, it is random, either you're lucky or you aren't. But if you are doing an activity that gives loot, then you earn that loot, whether the loot is randomly generated or not. It's loots. It's yours. You earned it.

They ARE earned, But not in the way that you are thinking of. For example, if I do one hundred ROC strikes in a row there is a 100% chance that I am going to get at least one legendary, because of probability. The game mechanics are designed around repetition (grinding), meaning you are guaranteed to get something of value, you just have to do the same crap over and over again until the odds are in your favor. For example, Mid January, I had done like 3-4 dozen roc strikes (for bounties n stuff) and had received a total of zero legendaries. I got put into a group of two that was at the last part of the Nexus strike, and decided "-blam!- it, I gotta take a dump." I came back and BOOM! On the loading screen was a legendary primary engram. I think I should say I had a total of 0 kills and 0 assists. Basically even if you get 420 kills, 69 assists, and generate 666 orbs of light, that is not a guarantee that you are going to receive a valuable drop

The fact that the majority thinks that completing a raid and. Getting an exotic from a drop is not earned is what ruined this game