I agree with you in this. Why not have both options? Sell and buy materials. With the exchange rates being what they are it's not like you could abuse them for rep. I liked running around doing patrols, looking for chests, materials and public events. They even took away the option of ascendance materials for the first gold completion of the day. Instead now you get a mote of light, which is the most useless currency in game apart from glimmer. I understand they needed to make buying materials available for people that hate farming them, but this patch seriously screwed the way I like to play the game.