Wasn't this all spelled out pretty early?

The upgrade stuff wasn't announced until shortly before launch (well after the Limited/Ghost editions were sold out), and the actual specifics of how it would work were "left as an exercise for the student" (read: we had to figure it out ourselves after launch).

I, like Disciple, had pre-ordered the Ghost edition for XB1 and regular disc for 360, expecting the extra content to follow my account, not my platform. Turns out I managed to choose the most expensive route possible, despite my efforts to save money.

I do think Bungie/Activision could have been more forthcoming about the logistics and/or lenient with cross-gen migration.

I kind of forgot how hard the Ghost Editions were to get and we couldn't easily change our order. I also bought one for the XB1 and wish, in retrospect, that I'd gotten the 360 version. As closely as I followed it I don't think I realized until too late that you couldn't get the Collector's Edition Digital Content anywhere else. The Destiny Digital Guardian Edition that included it wasn't sold on the 360, inexplicably. At least I was able to sell my Xbone expansion pass and save some money.

The PS offerings were simpler--speaking of which, I'm currently getting a message on my PS4 saying that the Vanguard Armory can't be downloaded. Anyone know why that is or what it means?

Well, it started with preorders a year out before anything about the game had been revealed. They were taking preorders before they'd really shown gameplay, or revealed the actual purchase tiers, or said a word about the platform separations! It was "our new game is called Destiny, here's some concept art, here's a couple brief seconds of gameplay footage, PREORDER NOW!!!" There's building hype and having early numbers to share and then there's just stupidity. I didn't preorder until after they'd shown some real gameplay at E3 2013.

Wasn't this all spelled out pretty early?

The physical vs digital thing certainly was. And while it's kind of annoying to see that people could pay $60 for the digital copy for 360 and get two copies of the game while my $150 purchase only gets me one copy of the game, I get why the offer couldn't be extended to physical copies and it was worth it to me to have a physical copy and the cool extras from the Ghost Edition. I had the info and I made the decision. Fair enough.

I don't recall the expansion info being that clear. Maybe it's just a case of me seeing what I expected to see, but I thought digital content (Guardians, gear, and addon purchases) were supposed to transfer freely within the same console family. There is no reason why purchasing the expansion for the 360 would unlock it for both the 360 and the One while making the same purchase on the One would lock it down to that console unless...

As Mig stated, the incentive was always for last-gen owners.

...they're telling us, "Last-gen owners, come buy the new shiny and we we'll make sure you're taken care of! Current-gen owners, get lost. You've already drunk the Kool-aid."

That's one interpretation, and I certainly think it would've been ideal if the transfer went both ways, but the promotion was cooked up to appeal to 360 owners who might otherwise wait to buy the game, and the assumption probably was that Xbone owners (or anyone else) weren't going to play on two platforms. (I think that's mostly true.) There was a second motivation, too, which was to make digital more attractive.

Even if it was spelled out somewhere, anyone buying the Ghost Edition didn't have the same options as digital purchasers. Xbox One owners who were going the digital route could choose to buy a 360 copy and have it upgraded to the One (though the fact that there was even an option for someone to buy a digital copy for the One that wouldn't downgrade is pretty ridiculous). But there was no digital Ghost Edition. If I wanted the game for the console I was most likely to play it on, I was locked into the digital content for that console as well.

There was a digital guardian edition that was identical to the Ghost Edition without the physical content, but it wasn't offered on the 360. (It was offered on the PS3.) The ideal route if you wanted the physical stuff and play on both Xbox platforms was to buy the 360 Ghost edition and the standard digital edition for 360. All digital content would transfer, and you'd have all the goodies everywhere. You could even sell your hardcopy Destiny to offset the cost a little. (Keeping the steel case, of course!) What I did instead was buy the Xbone ghost edition, buy all the 360 digital content, and sell my Xbone expansion pass. The collector's edition digital stuff like the red ghost got lost in the shuffle. I can never have it on the 360. I'll live.

The whole thing just feels like a giant middle finger to those of us who paid the most to get what we thought would be the best way to experience the game.

That's a dramatic way of putting it. I think they probably just didn't think that many people would want to downgrade. What is sleazy is not having the same digital offerings on both platforms. That's a bit like you're favorite artist putting that new song on their greatest hits album. Completionists gotta pay.

-Disciple