I feel like there has to be a balance between the prize winning aspect and the actual gameplay. If we can just keep weapons forever the gameplay part suffers. Plus its just a better approach than the old way where they had to announce nerfs on a basically similar schedule but with the added fun of it being somewhat of a surprise.

The only reason they have to announce nerfs is because Bungie has never properly balanced anything. They [u]purposefully[/u] make one archetype better to artificially incentivize new gear. If they would balance everything around a reasonable ttk, including special weapons and class abilities [i](nothing should OHK besides supers, heavies, and certain exotic/skill based perks)[/i], then they wouldn't need the constant sandbox updates. Gameplay suffers from lack of replayability, not from whatever guns/abilities you choose to run through it with.

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you want them to balance all however many hundred weapons there are around a certain ttk, then maintain them, while also somehow creating content knowing that there are something hundred weapons that they have to think about? Balance in Destiny is such a nebulous concept. It means something different to everyone. Shotguns not OHKing would be a complete no go for a lot of people. Some things are more replayable than others. That's another one of those things that's up to the individual to decide for themselves in most scenarios.

Until shotguns, grenades, and melees have the same ttk as sidearms and smgs there will never be balance. The whole reason we got into the pinnacle mess was because of things like Recluse being created as an smg competing with ridiculous shotguns like Mindbender's or Chaperone. Mountaintop was an OHK with range and auto-reload [i](led to the reload, barricade & well nerfs)[/i]. Revoker is an OHK that breaks ammo economy. And every class was awarded some form of OHK melee/grenade. The problem with OHKs is the only 2 things that matter are range and ease of use [i](AA/Targetting/Pellet spread)[/i]. Other games have experienced this problem before, TTD = time to death. It's the same problem that Stasis has enhanced with freezing; players need to have a chance to return fire. If you are dying in one hit, it doesn't matter what the ttk is on your sidearm or smg. Tell me, when was the last time you thought about using a rapid-fire shotgun in PvP?