In reverse order. Yes, the reward structure is a problem, and suffers from the usual Bungie stinginess. The focusing system is so broken and overpriced (especially for a time when sunsetting was still active), that I largely don't even bother to interact with it. The shards are more valuable to me in levelling up gear in my vault than for focusing engrams. So Umbral engrams are largely just junk that I break down for shards that I use in other parts of the game's economy. Bad design. As for the activity, I understand your frustration with the spammy nature of the enemies and how much damage they do, but consider this. 1. The activity isn't failable. Even if the entire team dies, there is no wiping. 2. Stasis. Stasis is such a powerful crowd-control power in the game, that Bungie has to do something to compensate and create a level of challenge. I think they hit a sweet spot with Battlegrounds. Instead stacking all kinds of negative modifiers, they increased the enemy numbers, density and lethality. The effect is that they now pose enough of a threat especially late in battleground ecounters, that you are forced to use your super at times to clear things out and reduce the amount of incoming fire you're taking. Rather than just sitting in a Well and face-tanking it. Which, imo, is a welcome and fresh-feeling change to the game play.

The main problem is Umbral Engrams, we can both agree on that. With Battlegrounds, I also think they did a very good job overall, but certain enemies need to be tuned. While I understand there is no wiping, it still doesn't change the fact that you shouldn't be getting 1 hit from a Thresher. Also, the Behemoth boss on Nessus could be tuned a bit as well. (Now that I think about it, this may be a problem tied to Behemoth specifically). When the most optimal strategy for killing a boss is to run at it with a sword, do a heavy attack, die, and repeat; there is a flaw with the system. This was actually my one criticism of the Whisper mission, it felt like the most efficient way to kill the bosses was to rush in with a sword knowing you would die and respawn. Outside of those enemies I mentioned, I would still tune boss stomp down just a tad then leave everything else essentially untouched.