I think the key is to wait on the filling in gaps (Destiny)

by kidtsunami , Atlanta, GA, Tuesday, November 17, 2020, 09:45 (1460 days ago) @ cheapLEY

I don’t know the best math, but I let the bounty challenge engrams cook as long as possible. The UI still says they’re only Tier 1 Powerfuls, but they’ve all been just as large a jump as any Pinnacle. So I get the Pinnacle from doing the three activities and let the bounty one cook, then I just play and try to get all my gaps filled in. Then I pick up one of those cooked engrams, then play and fill in any gaps as close as possible, then repeat.

Just playing to fill in gaps is far more beneficial now than it was before (since you can’t use tokens anymore). My Warlock ended at 1212. My Hunter then ended at 1218. I only have the 100K nightfall available on both. After I finished my Hunter, I went back to my Warlock to do post campaign stuff and some Crucible, and she’s now back in the lead at 1220 or 1221

I approached it from a "powerful drops" are what I need and powered through all of them this past week not bothering to play to fill them in. In retrospect that really hampered me.