I think you're suffering from confirmation bias. I didn't get that out of the kotaku article at all. Certainly some assets were reused, but TTK story arc was clearly never part of the original story (though the location was included). I don't know how I'd feel about Destiny without the Director and the open world patrol zones, etc... These were (apparently) not included in the original either. I'd like to believe that the execs saw this as an opportunity to increase the longevity of the game per their 10 yr commitment. Imagine a single linear story line spanning that long and still holding players attention from day 1. Lastly, microtransactions were negotiated to replace future DLC costs. You don't have to buy any emotes, but you'll still get the next "DLC's" for free. Sounds like a good thing to me.