I've never really gone out of my way to farm mats. Instead, while doing patrols to gain rep for vanguard and factions, I would simply collect any mats I came across and of course grab every chest I found. After a while I easily had around 200 of each type of material (even after upgrading gear). So I would head over to the vanguard guy and cash in some mats for marks. I didn't use it everyday, but it helped me get crucible marks without much pvp. I don't hate pvp, it's just not what I wanna do when I play destiny. So I can see why people are upset. It wouldn't have hurt to leave that aspect in the game.