You're not wrong with your assessments. But I feel the gun nerfs have, in general, been overblown (though some of them were definitely harsh). The perk nerfs have been worse, but also less frequent. In general, the gunplay and abilities still feel as good now as they did in the beginning, which was the brightest spot of year one for me, along with vault of glass. To me, none of the nerfs affected the game in such a way as to make it unplayable the way I wanted to play. I have always preferred auto rifles and scout rifles, and I have always felt like I could use those guns effectively if I wanted to. Sure, I was disappointed when autos got nerfed. But I still used them and had fun.

Absolutely. The nerfs to weapons/abilities have never affected anyone's ability to play whatever style they enjoy. Pretty much everything has always been viable, at least in PvE. My point is that players who have completed every strike, raid, quest, etc, really shouldn't feel less powerful now than ever. Right? It has always seemed most nerfs were done in an effort to balance PvP, and I can't think of any right now that weren't warranted in some way. Some were done in the name of weapon diversity, which in my opinion is Bungie trying to steer how the game is played, which is a little silly. I suppose having everyone requesting the same loadout for LFG groups helped this decision along. Ultimately, all nerfs/buffs have been the studio's decision, and a lot of them have lessened players ability to be a one person wrecking machine. That's fine I guess, because again, this is not a difficult game. I don't really know where I'm going with this, other than to reiterate that our characters aren't as powerful as they once were, and that just feels incorrect given that this game is coming to an end as far as content goes.

Yet trials is filled with wormwood using no land beyond not flinching wrecking ball of players.

Even with so much no land beyond / sidearm usage, I still hold that it takes skill to use that weapon. It was at one time my favorite gun in the crucible when its usage was much lower. They're about to fix the flinch, but at this moment you have to treat it as you would a sniper rifle in year 1. Meaning you can't just stand your ground, you have to strafe, jump, etc just as if you were dueling with hand cannons. All that is about to change anyway with the flinch correction to the gun and the sidearms no longer stacking ammo.

It doesn't take skill to use a sniper that always has ammo and doesn't flinch when taking suppression. If anything it's a crutch.