That's kinda just a straight up terrible way to play the game though. You get 2 engrams for doing a high-level strike playlist. They CAN be legendary/purple, but like 90-95% of the time they are rare/blue. Doing random strikes that take 20-30 minutes (assuming nobody quits) and hoping you get lucky enough to receive a useful item at the end is the absolute pits. It's that awful loot cave mentality taken to another extreme -- people rely on absolutely nothing but RNG for progression, and then get upset when RNG doesn't reward them.
Completely disagree. Firstly, what is there to do in Destiny? Daily Heroic Stories, Weekly Heroic Strikes, Weekly Nightfall Strikes, Vanguard Strike Playlist, Vanguard and Crucible bounties, patrol missions, material farming, the Vault of Glass, and various deathmatch PvP modes. The Daily Heroic Story and Weekly Nightfall Strikes are level 30 activities which require players to be within 3 levels to participate in them. So for level 26 and below players, they cannot participate in the Weekly Nightfall Strike for this week's weekly reward if they don't have the TDB DLC so that's one thing less for them to do. They're also unable to participate in the Daily Heroic Story twice now since last Tuesday's reset because The Wakening and Siege of the Warmind have been the daily story mission and inaccessible to those who don't have the TDB DLC. So what can level 26 and below players do in Destiny? The Vault of Glass has similar level restrictions for level 23 and above players, and we all know how tedious and even futile it can be to do any story missions 2 levels below the difficulty level - player level relative to enemy level because of how the damaging scaling works. So what else can players do in this game? The Weekly Heroic Strike is available to players level 21 and above, but that's inaccessible to those who also don't have the TDB DLC this week too. What remains are the Vanguard Strike Playlist, Vanguard and/or Crucible bounties, patrol missions, and various PvP modes. Bounties in general are mainly worthwhile to do for experience points to level up weapons and armor, and it has the additional effect of leveling up reputation ranks. Bounties are one of the very few things anybody (almost everyone - level 4 and above) can do in this game. Patrol missions for increasing Vanguard reputation is also another activity people can do in Destiny, but it's even less rewarding as participating in a Vanguard Strike Playlist. So unless persons were interested in playing the PvP, there are very few things to constantly do in Destiny and that's my main point. A lot of the very rewarding content is either locked behind the DLC, near the endgame, and/or restricted to being a weekly activity. Diminishing the incentive to play an already unrewarding activity gives less reason to continue playing this game because there's less to do. You say it's unworthwhile to play the Vanguard Strike Playlist, but that's not my argument at all. It's something to do in Destiny that has become less rewarding. There's barely a handful of things to do in Destiny while all Destiny players wait until the Tuesday reset, and your argument is the Vanguard Strike Playlist is such a petty activity that people shouldn't be bothered by the fact there's less reason to play it? Ridiculous. This is a loot game and you find it strange that people want to play for loot?
The game sets pretty clear paths for guaranteed progression - those strike playlists are a pull of the slot machine at best. I wouldn't advise them except for someone that's bored and has already done all the quests, the daily heroic, and the weekly/nightfall. The chances of a good reward is exceedingly low, and the chances of having to run a dull-ass strike with strangers is exceedingly high. You can get Strange Coins from them yes, but I don't run them unless I'm absolutely desperate for Strange Coins. As in "Xur is leaving in 12 hours and I need 5 more coins to buy the thing I want!" level of desperation.
The Vanguard Strike Playlist is something else to do in Destiny, a game where there is barely a handful of things to do in this game on a daily basis. Moreover, stop looking at the Vanguard Strike Playlist for levels 30s and above. Consider what level 27s and below can do in this game to advance. The Vanguard Strike Playlist is something to do for levels 16 and above once the weekly mark cap has been reach. Efficiency to level 31? Sure that matters, but what can you do with your newfound level? Complete that story mission bounty? Do some patrol missions for how much minuscule reputation for a rewards package that may give you something besides a commendation? The upcoming Iron Banner? The VoG or End of Crota raid for fun after the umpteenth time with zero rewards or gains? Instead of trivializing the entertainment value and valuableness of the Vanguard Strike Playlist, look at what activities can be done in Destiny and then tell me if it's trivial to remove one of the very few things you can do in Destiny that's best chances at rewards are limited to being weekly occurrences. That's a huge lull between each reset week after week, and there remains only one new raid to help placate that lull. There's not enough to do in Destiny, and Bungie is giving more reason for players not to continue playing Destiny because there's less to do instead of more to do. One extra raid isn't a whole lot especially when hard mode is locked out.