Getting the same slotted item at one light level above the previous item and have to play things you don't enjoy playing just to get repeats for starters.

That does suck. I’ve been there many times, too. However there are at least 25 powerful engram opportunities at reset each week, with daily activities refreshing another 5 on top of that over the week (if you have everything unlocked). You have some set ones like Ada’s weapons that you can complete if you need to power up a specific spot in your gear. The weekly from her is guaranteed high armor. Plus now you can specifically get a powerful helmet from Drifter. That’s not even counting Prime Engrams which you will get as you complete the other activities or the 11 or 12? powerful drops you can get in raids. I just feel like there are a lot of opportunities to get powerful drops. Some are fast, some take longer, and some are probably out of reach for some people. It seems to me like you can do only the things you like and level slowly or go out and do some stuff you might not like so much, but get rewarded by leveling more quickly. That’s how most of the games I’ve ever played work. It sucks when you get a few powerful drops in a row all of the same item type, but that’s the nature of rng.