No. They were still able to buy stuff from vendors, play heroic missions, play daily/nightfall/weekly heroic if they were non-dlc missions. Now it's different because they're stuck at 34. So solve the problem they should also be able to reach level 40 (because it literally means nothing but access) and a maximum lightlevel of 280. So they're still able buy stuff from the vendors and are able to do nightfall, weekly, daily IF the mission/strike is a non-dlc one, just like before.