While a 5-10% weapons damage boost or a 5-15 armor DR boost doesn't sound like much, I can definitely see a scenario where players kick player from fireteams because they're not running the latest and greatest gear.
It also has me concerned for exotics who will apparently be power crept unless bungie regularly updates them.
Not to mention, who will honestly want to regrind their T5 gear every 6 months? That's a lot of RNG to wade through, plus they might not even offer an archetype you like that season.
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I think it's meant for incremental progress to keep people play season over season to stay at the top not to grind flat out...ei if you just do happen to find a "new" armor that lines up with whatever your already using you replace it and get a bonus so it's an advanced treadmill that rewards the forever grinders but won't affect most players all that much outside of end game content...