No to the former. Yes to the latter. You have to retire every source of player power in a loot game, or else the game winds up self-destructing from power creep. If they got rid of sunsetting armor, Bungie would just wind up recreating the problems that Pinnacle weapons caused....but just doing it with armor instead. But---yes---the cost of leveling up the energy level of armor needs to be reduced. Drastically. Here's a secret...and its another reason why this game has needed sunsetting for a long time. The game's lack of sunsetting allowed Bungie to get away with the game not having sufficient loot for FAR too long. Plus that allowed other game systems to be badly designed AROUND the fact that there was no sunsetting. Point? Simple. Loot games keep you playing and grinding....in pursuit of cool and valuable loot items. But the game has to be able to produce loot in sufficient quantity and in wide enough VARIETY to support this. Destiny 2 has NEVER been able to do this...and it wasn't until sunsetting shined a spotlight on this deficiency that Bungie was finally motivated to FIX IT. (Both weapons and armor). Instead Bungie relied on throttling progression and breaking its relationship to player time investment so that they could keep us playing by chasing after a number (Milestones and Pinnacle grinds)....and chasing after various forms of upgrade materials/currency. This is part of the reason why so many people are unhappy right now. The way that Bungie has had to use in order to make up for the game's lack of loot, don't feel as good. Doesn't interact with our brains in the same way that seeing all the bright colors of a loot drop fly in all directions....and then we eagerly pick it up and wonder what we'll get. IOW, you have a Bungie investment team that is trying to impose an MMO-like system on a loot game, and this game (just like its issues with loot) doesn't have any of the features in place that allow MMOs to get away with those things. Games like ESO have such long and involved stories that you don't notice that you're progressing through the game at a snails pace....and sinking lots and lots of hours into the play. (Most people don't. I walked away from ESO in part because of the slow speed of the game, and it's game play wasn't very interesting)

Or dismantling gear gives you the full amount of resources used on it

Hahah. I already have enough mats to mw sets for the next 3 seasons.. It really isn't that expensive.