Wait, New Light is just players who started in shadowkeep, or in beyond light. New Light does not directly correspond to free to play players. It was just the means of giving players starting waaaaaaaaaay after most of the story has progressed an entry point that helps them fit into the current story. It was really bad in shadowkeep but I haven't looked into the "new" New Light". Did this change with Beyond Light?

New light was always for f2p players. That's literally what the f2p game says: "New Light". Shadowkeek players and after got their own story campaign which they didn't get because it doesn't come with the free part of the game

I’m not saying free to play players don’t start with the new light experience. I’m saying that if you bought the game when Shadowkeep launched or anytime last year, you would start the new light campaign rather than starting with the red war. New light wasn’t exclusively limited to the free to play scene but they do share the same origin story.