Just because they went for it on a far smaller scale doesn't change what it is at its core. The basic building blocks are there, and I think you very well know this. To me an MMO isn't just solely about player count, but also very much the structure and design of that game.
I mean, if it makes people feel better we can call it a Multiplayer Online FPS RPG, and leave out the massive part, but it absolutely borrows heavily from MMO game design. That's not a crime. However, when it apparently doesn't do a very good job in areas that are vital to making a player feel a sense of reward or continued motivation to keep playing and coming back for more, that kind of becomes an issue. Maybe the raw gameplay alone is motivation enough for many, but that alone isn't what was sold to people. Nothing at all wrong with people that feel the gameplay alone is rewarding enough to make up for the areas in which it lacks, but if you're going to include all these other things at all and talk about how great they are, then at the very least a lot more is expected than what players actually received. It doesn't really get a pass simply because it's not entirely in line with your traditional MMO experience. Never forget that a big part of the excitement in the first place was that these other elements would be totally up to standard and executed with pretty high quality in a game that played as Destiny did, that took place in a massive world as beautiful as what was built, with a story experience to match.
