The Kellhunter's Cloak is only 3 Defense!

My New Monarchy cloak is 140, my Dead Orbit and FWC cloaks are 130. Don't get that one.

My Mark of the Exile is something I got in Trials. But it's only 30 defense. So if I want to wear it, I drop in light level. Meanwhile, this Mark of the Pilgrim Guard is 110. And it's Rare, not Legendary. What is up with some of this stuff?

Just as the attack and defense ratings are being re-scaled, the same is being done with item rankings.

For a long while now, white, green and blue items have been irrelevant-- they might as well have not existed once you'd played through the main quest once.

I think the intent is to make rares actually rares, and legendaries exceptional. For the class items, some of the "old" items are being re-created with new defense ratings higher than the old legendaries, leaving room above them for the new rare and legendary items you'll need to hit light 240.

I agree, though, that I'm not sure assigning defense ratings, not just perks, to class items and ghost shells was a good idea. Those were the only items you could choose for aesthetics alone, and now everyone is going to start out wearing the same stuff because the range of new items with good defense ratings will be limited at the start.