HoW was the last hurrah of Y1, letting people upgrade whatever gear they wanted to the highest level. Regardless if they held onto old vanilla Destiny stuff, they could go and upgrade whatever legendary or exotic gear they had. There were no restrictions. If you really think HoW was garbage, that's fine, you're entitled to feel that way and I'm glad you shared your thoughts. But HoW, for me, was my open ticket into the raids, grabbing exotic gear, and truly getting involved with the game and it's community.