I think I had an epiphany moment with light progression. Since the light level of your drops is dependant on the light level of your character (hence why everyone's faction packages yielded really low light legendaries, meanwhile someone here posted a blue Pulse Rifle with 286 light), this means that I'd you really wanted to you could keep progressing in light level by doing patrol all day. Not that I would suggest that, but the point is doing any activity will technically be working towards your next light level. This must be what Bungie meant when they said they wanted to reward the players time.
Meanwhile, vendor gear starts at 280 for those who want a bit of a jump start and any legendaries you really enjoy throughout your progression can be infused through your loads of blue drops.