I think what's you're saying makes sense to an extent but I disagree on two fronts. First of all, I don't see any issue with raids being tiered. VoG is a key stepping-stone towards Crota's End. Granted it's made less relevant by being able to purchase level 31 gear from Tower vendors. However VoG not only yields equipment that lets you hit that same level but it also gives you an excellent source of the upgrade materials required to max out that Vendor gear. Second, the exotics that VoG yields, while not the upgraded versions, either represent a discount on the upgraded version (cost of an upgrade compared to cost of a straight-out purchase) or a free Exotic Shard, a value of about seven Strange Coins, respectively. That's not to mention, otherwise, you're getting an exotic item, albeit not an upgraded one; that alone is no reason to cry. Legendary equipment is still useful (VoC is still an excellent weapon as is Praedyth's sniper rifle that I can't remember the name of) and if not it can be disposed of. I would argue that instead of simply making VoG's current normal and hard difficulties yield equipment of the same level as Crota's End that instead a third difficulty level should be added (level 31 or 32) that gives equipment of the same quality as that in Crota's End and also requires as well as yields the same type of upgrade materials utilized by Crota's End equipment. That preserves the lower levels of VoG as a stepping stone and also gives VoG increased relevance in the overall game. Additionally to give you an added reason to get gear from VoG they could implement some kind of exchange system that lets you turn in Raid legendaries for Crota's End upgrade materials.