Level 80+ without HoT, pointless?
Bit of both. You still earn spirit shards, and you earn them the same way as everyone else. That might be less frequently than you earned Skill Points under the old system, depending on how you played and RNG, but everyone is equally affected by that.
You don’t have a use for XP now, however, same as everyone else between the introduction of spirit shards and the release of HoT. There’s no hidden currency. People who max out their masteries will be in the same position. (Although that could take a while, CoE farm aside.)
I’m not sure I’d consider it a hard push to upgrade, because it was like that for everyone for months and months, but I do think it’s a little lame that XP can sometimes be worthless, to anyone.
It was always pointless unless you spent all your skill points you got after 80 on the Mystic Forge since the trait system doesn’t use them anymore (thank Gods).
All that Level 80 does is lets you play in level gated areas and allows you to have better gear stats in areas in PvE where everyone is leveled up to 80.
RIP City of Heroes
You don’t have a use for XP now, however, same as everyone else between the introduction of spirit shards and the release of HoT.
Level 80s can grind XP for Tyria Masteries if that’s something you feel inclined to work on.
I’ve never really spent my skill points after I got all my skills so leveling after 80 was pretty much always pointless for me back then. If you don’t own HoT then it continues to be pointless, but that’s not exactly a big change then, imo.
ANet may give it to you.