Even the longest of Vanguard Threader bounties (40 Champions) only takes 4-5 Hero level Nightfalls, which has matchmaking and can be done while progressing a number of other quests, bounties, and challenges without going out of your way to do anything special. The other activity bounties require roughly the same time commitment for any activity you would already be playing.

The cool thing is that you can completely ignore the paid path if you don’t have the money or don’t want to spend it.