How exactly does the curation work? Are you given specific weapons by the game? Or do you simply equip the pulse/smg/grenadelsuncher of your choice?

You just equip them. You are free to switch between weapons at will, as long as they fit the correct type.

I just want to chime in and voice my respectful dissent.

To be clear, pulse rifles are generally my least-preferred [traditional] primary weapon, and I really don't like SMGs all that much - especially in PvE. Oh and grenade launchers are stupid too.

But overall, I actually was kind of enjoying the challenge of dealing with both the crappy loadout, and the Arsenal modifier. It was definitely a major change of pace and philosophy from the way I usually play that encounter. I felt like I was using a pea shooter to try to kill everything, even the goblins. So overall, I'd say the major challenge is that we weren't able to kill things quite as fast as we normally do; and that's why I think you're actually misled into thinking that the enemy spawn rates were increased. I didn't notice any differences in the amount/type/location/timing of enemies spawning -- only that we often weren't done clearing a group before the next group appeared. But again, that's because my pulse rifle felt like a pea shooter and it takes that extra time to cycle through the weapons.

After about 2.5 hours from starting the raid lair, we beat the mines -- on what has become the standard "last attempt of the night". (Seriously, our lat 3-4 raids have probably ended with us beating the raid/encounter on "last call" after we've been struggling for 2 hours!)

Anyways, I totally get everything you said and think it's all perfectly reasonable to feel that way. But I ended up enjoying the mix-up and challenge to go way outside my comfort zone and figure out how to make a crappy loadout work.

I'm going to have to second all of this. It sucked at first and it felt very unnatural the entire night. However, it was more about going with the flow of it. Making sure you knew when a minotaur popped out and planning the right weapon for when that happened, even if you had to unload a clip into the ground.

Making sure to supplement your current weapon with abilities! This was by far the most important take away I got from the night. I actually chose to run armamentarium with fusion grenades to combat the minotaurs for when I was stuck with kinetic weapon.

Also, I looked at all my weapon perks and how they relate to my other weapons. What was the best grenade launcher for clearing goblins but also the punch for minotaurs? Turns out The Colony is amazing, because Even if you are on a different platform you can just launch a clip to support another platform if you are just idling.

All these thought processes and strategy would never have happened without the modifiers. Thanks Bungie for actually making me care about what I used even if I didn't always like it!