A vanguard shouldn't have to farm a 5-1 mission for advanced orbs - at this point, I should be drowning in low-star rarities. But since low-star items don't drop in higher tiers, we have to go and do ultra-easy missions to get them. Instead, let us farm the fun high-star missions and craft down the orbs - maybe an eternal can be split into 2 elites, and an elite can make 2 advanced, etc.
Since the removal of mist energy it has become prohibitively expensive/annoying to craft low-star gear, and I think this would solve that issue without doing something like 'increasing orb drop rate' which would also affect high-star gear.
Making vanguards play earlier depths is the entire point of the orb system. It's an incentive to not constantly play firestorm citadel and help new players with earlier missions.