It never was. Look at it like this: You got to a restaurant and pay an entry fee for an all inclusive meal. The drinks aren't actually "on the house" when you do that. Now with this event not only did you already pay for an all inclusive meal....some people already paid extra for drinks for everybody. Do this event has been paid several times over and is absolutely NOT free.

You're really bad at making analogies. It's free additional content. Just like SRL, I didn't have to pay any additional fees to participate in this event. I don't believe I was promised access to any of these events following the purchase of Destiny. I don't have any evidence to support this statement, but I'm pretty sure you don't need Rise of Iron to participate in the Festival of the Lost event either. Festival of the Lost was not something we knew we would be getting when we purchased Destiny.

Let me ask you this. Have you bought any of the DLC or any amount of Silver since the game was launched? If so, the "event" is not free. More so how they changed it since last year. Free is Overwatch. I paid $47.99 on Amazon (20% off with Prime preorder.) I have not spent a penny since I received the game. During the Summer Blizzard released the Summer Event. All items could be earned by playing OR purchasing loot crates. I just played and earned what I could. The Halloween event was released and Blizzard actually took the communities comments about the Summer Event and improved the Halloween event. All skins, stickers, emotes, win stances could be earned by playing OR by using in game currency that you received from duplicates. Point being, I spent $47.99 on Overwatch. Since release we have received a new character. New map. Two events with additional skins and cosmetics. Did I have to grind to receive a lot of the items? Yes. But Destiny let you get as many bags as you wanted last year. Now they limit you to a total of 3. The rest you have to buy. Again, if you paid for ANY of the DLC or Silver, then the event isn't free. Just because you love Bungie doesn't mean you should be blind to their cash grab.