Ouch. Truly a sad read, but more because of the amount of valid points you've stated. Bungie's lack of public announcements (Apart from a sassy thread response from DeeJ) have led me to believe that what an apparent Bungie employee on reddit said was true: They had an idea, and mid-development everything fell apart; There were discussions, peoeple wanted to do different things, and everything went south from there. If true --Which I believe-- it certainly is a shame. And I believe, more than disappointment or anger, what I feel is.. Just sadness. Regardless of causes, the game promised so many things, and ended up delivering nothing. I always defended Bungie when people critiziced their games and tried to show their narrative ability and scope, always using Marathon as the first example, of course.
Business takes priority over everything else these days, so it's not about a story, an "Interactive" book you can jump into and be part of. Just another product that needs to be released and create profit. They "Tried" to do something about the story, but you don't need to be a dev to notice not only the lack of story per se, but also the amount of flaws and details the game has (As well as the lack of some others).
I've been a fan since 2002. One day I found an icon that caught my attention on a public cyber room, it had "Halo" on it. Since then, my life changed, and from there a lot of things happened. I do believe that the way I am, as well as the things I'd like to do/be in the future have also been the result of all these years I've spent playing Halo, and eventually Marathon as well. But seeing what happened with Destiny, and Not seeing what's going on in the team, is really frustrating, all things considered. The uncertainty, the impotence and lack of resources to do something about it (Not that it is my duty or anyone else's outside of Bungie) can truly make things worse.
The Bungie/Activision contract says that part of the staff was/is supposed to work on a project codenamed "Marathon", and seeing how this came out, I have to say I'm very preoccupied at the moment. Enough to refrain from continuing any collaborations with Destiny Dispatch; I haven't written an article in weeks and I doubt that it'll be a nice one if I ever do.
In the meantime, I'll just keep hopelessly hunting for Dead Ghosts and checking Bungie.net to read those grimoire cards while I still have time to waste.
