Suppose time will tell, but bungie made it very clear in the pre-dlc interviews that existing players that did not want to purchase dlc would not be totally left behind. I'm sort of fed up saying this, but maybe you are looking at things all wrong... The problem is not with the current level of vendor gear, its old raid gear being made obsolete. Current gear (lvl 31) is equivalent to old vendor gear (lvl29) - it's one level higher than the nightfall level and one lower than the raid gear. There is no difference. So maybe if there was a way to upgrade your old raid armour then this would all go away? I never heard anyone say level 29 was too high for vendor gear before the dlc...