People probably learnt the lesson that you should wait for all the content to be in the game before buying the game.
Thats a terrible lesson. This game is by far at its most enjoyable immediately after a content drop. Being there day 1 means you get to be there while secrets are discovered, it means having a ton of people at the same stage you are in for co-op, it means playing through all the content while it is still relevant.
People who buy this next year will save some money, sure. But theyll miss the opportunity to play the raid tomorrow when it first opens up and figure it out without guides and stuff. Theyll miss out on this weekends big Trials reveal - zero hype or surprise at what the rewards / social space looks like. Theyll miss out on the expectation for some time gates quests still in progress (we currently have a Power Weapon bounty that just lists wait for the world eater to arrive for example). Theyll miss the hype surrounding the as-yet unexplained Faction Rally scheduled for the end of the month, and the first Iron Banner next month.
I mean sure you could buy D1 today for like US$20 but its not worth even a penny when these social experiences are left out of the value proposition. Over the course of D1, I spent US$170 ($100 for base game + first 2 expansions, $40 for The Taken King, $30 for Rise of Iron). It was *absolutely worth it* and, I dare say, a far better deal than paying US$5 for all of that today without people to play it with.