I actually think dramatically shaking up the meta more rarely is much more enjoyable for the player. Everything is risky when you make changes to a system, and more frequent modest updates to slightly tweak things after a big shakeup are not unwise. But I'm glad that the meta will, one hopes, look compleeetely different after this release, and I personally hope this isn't the last time it happens before Destiny is ended.
Thorn got buffed because there were an enormous amount of fans asking for it. Shotguns deserved their buff even if slightly scaling it back is still a good idea, and close range fusion rifles are being buffed.