We just believe that social connections in the game make the overall experience better. There are many good applications for matchmaking in Destiny. Our designers feel very strongly that endgame activities rely on a team that is acquainted with itself. Your feedback has been heard, so there's no telling how Destiny might change in the future. In the immediate term, I see a lot of people who are talking about a need for teammates. However, it is not that simple. At current, our philosophy about endgame content is that part of the challenge includes forming up a team. This is a strong community filled with players who are looking for teammates. Why not seek each other out here and band together? -Deej

I've had the exact same amount of success with MM teams as I have with LFG teams If not more success with the silent guardian

There's no difference between fireteams created thru optional matchmaking if the matchmaking is done properly, and fireteams created by random invite spam or random webites - except all the time lost waiting for somebody to answer the random spam or respond to a post on a website. These days, that's a lot of time. No difference at all for those who won't play with anyone that isn't a lvl34 and has a fully upgraded G'horn as that's what the [b]OPTIONAL[/b] is for.