>>538289538
It's not unheard of for a studio to make a decision they know the players hate for the overall long-term health of a game, but I'm not sure what the benefits (perceived or otherwise) are here.
This won't drive up engagement, which has been their main attack point since Heresy.
This won't drive up retention, which has been an issue since The Final Shape.
This is a direct attack on player sentiment at all relevant levels of play, so it's not a "feel good" patch.
The only thing left that I can think of is that they want to increase the pressure to use Avant Garde/Touche because they want a smaller sandbox to work with when having to make balance considerations for endgame. Either they're making moves to allow them to downsize dev hours on D2 (to either liquidate or reallocate those devs), or the strain of having to constantly chase balance for the top end is putting too much pressure on the devs and the more casual players.

Bungie is trying to, at the most benevolent reading of their design intent, force feed the playerbase their veggies to make them stop crutching on the same busted combos they've been using for a year or more. However, the playerbase isn't having it, and would rather starve themselves, or go over to Li's house where his mom has funny cookies with words in them.
Bungie needs to break the glass and put out a "junk food" patch that just lets players go nuts and not care about balance for a bit. ANYTHING to get people in the door, at this point.