That is all you hear as a consumer of that product... a fan of that company(no offense). We hear what they tell us and buy into it like kids with Christmas candy. The point is, Bungie wanted to look like the good guys coming out of Microsoft. So they "Said" that this was everything they wanted Halo to be.
But I disagree. I think they took a page out of the political playbook and simply deceived everyone into believing that statement. It's not hard. If Halo was at it's peak with Halo 3 then why, if they listen to their community, would they place loadouts, reticle bloom, and Sprint and other AA's in Halo?
These simple things divided the community.
343i was forced to continue with this... why? Because all the fans they had left from the aftermath of Reach were the ones who "accepted" the changes. Unfortunately all the faithful Halo fans of old, form Halo CE, 2, and 3 died off due to "changes" to gameplay.... and drive to get better, the point of getting better at the game, was removed. What ever happened to out BR'ing? What ever happened to out strafing the other guy to get that last shot? It was rendered useless in Reach.
With the popularity of GoW, Asassins Creed, and Call of Duty growing stronger... people still chose to play Halo 3. People still said it was the better game but yet Bungie still decided to change Halo to something it was not. If people think Bungie did not talk to Activision before they joined them after the separation from MS, then I think they would likely be wrong.
Bungie knew what made Halo different from the rest.... and they turned it into exactly the same as the other FPS.
Simple politics. Make one side look terrible, and make the other look amazing.
Which leads me to my point.....
Destiny Vs. Halo 4
Which game looks more appealing?
Bungie had the upper hand in this divorce as they had the other side in their hands before they passed it over.
EDIT: Will Destiny be better than Halo 4? certainly. But I am not buying into the hype of this game.