It seems the community is fiercely divided into 2 camps: those who want vertical progression and those who don’t.
Those who don’t want vertical progression cite new skins (e.g. cosmetics) as a reason pursue higher tier gear, such as legendaries. Those who want vertical progression say that cosmetics alone isn’t enough of an enticement.
A question to both camps: what about vertical progression in the form of convenience items? What I mean are things that help your character without actually increasing combat effectiveness. A perfect example of this: ascended gear has same stats as exotics, but it also has magic find (or increases it over what exotic version has). Other examples could be items that affect salvaging, harvesting, or crafting.