You're going to have a hard time convincing me that this price-point is a bad thing when it covers MY free content updates.

You keep saying this, but the free content we've gotten so far was Festival of the Lost and Sparrow Racing League.

The free 'content' in Festival of the Lost was Jackolyte consumables, Flight of Shadows consumable (and both of these were recycled from year one), 'candy' that was basically just the glimmer-boosting consumabls we have now except with a new name and icon, and cosmetic masks that you can't really wear at all outside of regular crucible, patrol or the tower. You can't show off that sweet flaming skull or funny engram mask to your LFG raid groups because you'll be useless when wearing it.

Sparrow Racing League took a couple of steps in the right direciton by actually having armor pieces that have light level, not to mention the decently high-level drops, full cosmetic armor sets, and new cosmetic sparrows and sparrow horns, shaders, and a couple of emblems. Do remind me if I'm missing something, I'm listing these off the top of my head.
But then there's the fact that if you want those sweet new sparrows, you don't have the chance to grind towards them. You don't get them by playing, you get them by gambling real money on RNG. That sucks, since the entire event revolves around SPARROWS. Which you can't get unless you pay up. No bueno. Sure, you can get ONE free roll by doing something - but I can't remember what that something was. Reaching a certain level with Amanda Holliday? Completing enough bounties? Something along those lines, either way I got one free Sparrow Kit to open, and lucky me, I got the Arcrunner which I thought was the coolest.
But the point is, the novelty of these events wears off fairly quick when there's barely anything that changes your gameplay. I would've appreciated having entire SRL armor sets with light level, not just the helmets and class items. Even some SRL themed weapons would've been nice. Hell, even if they were just recycled weapon stats from already existing vendor weapons just with new paintjobs or models would've been nice to have.
I also think the SRL Record Book should've been something Amanda gives to every player when they first visit her, not something you have to pay up for. At least that way players would've had the chance to actually play and compete towards challenges which unlock awards for them.

I also don't like how they're timegating exotics. I want ATS/8 Arachnid Y2, and I'd really like to have Thagomizers and Shinobu's Vow already. But alas, I can't have them because Bungie has locked them out and will release them at whatever point they want in the future. This 'pacing content' shit needs to go away.

Lastly, wasn't there an interview some time ago where the Bungie employee in question actually said that there may be paid content packs even besides these microtransactions? I'd go find it but I'm lazy and need my coffee atm.

There's not much to know besides what has already been mentioned, Bungie's slowly introducing more and more stuff into their microtransaction scheme as if trying to ease the playerbase into slowly accepting it all, with the added bonus of there maybe being paid content packs in the future similar to TDB and HoW.

I hate the slippery slope argument as much as the next guy, but it really feels like said slippery slope is happening with Destiny as we speak. Shame, really, since I do enjoy the game at it's core, I just wish they'd put more effort into taking advantage of all the untapped potential there is.

The person can either spend 10 hours getting to maximum level or spend $45 to get their instantly. That's NOTHING. If you want to skip all that shit and be a retard, that's your prerogative. You're going to have a hard time convincing me that this price-point is a bad thing when it covers MY free content updates.

Destiny microtransactions don't pay towards any kind of free dlc.