I think cashing in motes for gear XP is an unsung hero of the expansion. From running a few activities last night and today, I had 10 motes. After turning in some quest steps and engrams, I had a lot of new gear, cashed in the motes, and got the first several nodes unlocked on each. They seem to drop ~1,000 XP per mote. I have 900 of them in the vault - they'll come in handy once I get more legendary and exotic gear.
Destiny does a good job now of feeding a steady stream of gear and loot not tied to RNG. At any point in time 3 or 4 of my gear kit has come from quest drops, not RNG, and that seems to be increasing as I work into the later quest stages. When combined with motes it means there's a dedicated stream of good gear, and a way to unlock perks on them quickly. They get to be awesome right away. (I'm all for gear drops, but this is a better mix of gear sources than before.)
I also noticed that a lot of the new quests are there in part to nudge us into to discovering what has changed in the game. Go and kill high profile targets on patrol, one says. Okay, sure. I'll go kill some level 3 shanks.
Oh wait, it's a level 40 reaver vandal and his level 40 buddies and they're kicking my ass. Oh. And killing them drops 500 glimmer, 400 XP, faction and Vanguard rep. Patrol missions are both more challenging - and fun - and more rewarding than before. Without the quest to point me on that direction, I might not have noticed, because I never run those patrol missions.
Good stuff.