We are living meta to meta. Something will always rise to the top. You push something down on one end only to have something else poke back up on another. Do you believe that bungie doesn't know this? They've actually said it themselves a few times that true balance is next to impossible. So, assuming they know this, why should they fight a battle they know they can't win? It is my belief that instead of making an attempt at achieving balance (which would get stale on it's own if achievable) they recognize that changing a meta to another is far easier and would pay off more in the long run. A meta becomes a cycle (or season if you prefer) that only serves to relieve the one that came before it. To freshen the experience rather than letting it rot. If there ever was a true consensus on what destiny would be as a pefectly balanced game, the end result would be the same. It would eventually get stale. A meta shift is nothing more than an attempt to keep things fresh and extend the longevity of the game and has nothing to do with "balance". The evidence of this is how sloppy weapon balance changes have been throughout the games lifespan. Im not going to make a list of changes I don't agree with but instead point you towards one I think stands out from this last patch (and believe me there is more than one). Sidearms have always had the intrinsic ability that allows you to respawn with ammo. Do you think they suddenly forgot about that when they made the special ammo changes that take away ammo upon death? They intentionally gave sidearms a huge push up by making it the only special weapon type that allows it and the upcoming patch won't change that very much. They intentionally made sidearms the new meta. This is not a true attempt at acheiving balance or else they would have wiped ammo for all special weapons (which would of been fair imho). Stop fooling yourselves into thinking it's about "balance". Its about using meta's to increase the longevity of a stale game.