Logically, the legendary Strangers Rifle must be connected to No Time to Explain

For a couple of important reasons. Most obviously, they're identical in function and form. Beyond that though, the Strangers Rifle is literally the only year one legendary to be given this option. Additionally, the change was made with only a week to go before the release of the Taken King when the logical thing to do was to simply buff the Stranger's Rifle to the max year one attack value at the same time they made it legendary. Instead, they deliberately chose to leave it at it's old attack value and give you the option to ascend it using the year 2 economy (legendary marks). It would make sense to allow it to be ascended using other year one weapons in the traditional way if their intention was for players who did not purchase the Taken King to be able to use it at max attack value. Clearly, they made a decision to make this only possible to people with the expansion at a point where they have 25 legendary marks (expensive for a "useless weapon") and using a weapon at that attack value no longer makes sense and would actually hamper character progress.

I'm 100% convinced the process of ascending this weapon is in some way connected to the No Time to Explain. Any thoughts on what could be next if I'm right?