Destiny 2 got better and much, much worse in that aspect. You got a full campaign, The Red War, on release. The downside is that at this point The Red War (and all of the other year 1 dlc that I paid for) has been removed from the game and is no longer playable. What actually made me stop playing is that they started locking story content behind timed battlepasses. So if you want to have any clue what's going on in the new DLC, you better have bought and played every battlepass since the last release. Absolutely weaponized FOMO.

Combine that with them resetting the minimum light several times.. if I started playing Destiny 2 again right now on my existing characters I'd be at roughly the same spot as a new player, I'd just look cooler and have a lot of frustration over trying to constantly upgrade my existing guns to whatever my current light is. In all honesty I'd probably give up until light progression slowed down and just use whatever drops. Oh yeah, and I'd be in about $120 deeper than that new player.