You're right that exotic ascension doesn't have to be a thing, Destiny would be just fine with stopping the ascension process at the Superior tier. However, as I've said in the thread, I think the benefits of allowing ascension to the exotic tier far outweigh the negatives. I don't feel that it would make the exotics feel any less unique, you can still make it hard as hell to make an equipment piece qualify for exotic ascension, or to unlock an exotic that you would actually think of ascending your gear to. The "Shard of the Traveler" requirement that I mentioned in particular would serve as the major restricting gateway to the Ascended Exotics, if you make a drop like that as rare as some of the dropped exotics, you'll prevent everyone from simply ascending their superior equipment to exotic willy-nilly. I don't think exotic ascension would make it any more difficult for Bungie to balance abillities (at least with the third implementation). Regardless of whether an exotic like Closing Time is made availible from a drop, or made availible through ascension, it's still going to perform the same way and it's still going to have all the same balance concerns. Finally, you're absolutely correct that exotic ascension isn't a process you'd want to do for every single one of your superior equipment pieces. But the value of the experience where you are killing a Fallen Boss only to find a Shard of the Traveler, and then you have the chance to take your favorite Hand Cannon to the next level... it's well worth the effort to implement in my opinion. Hope that helps :)