It´s basically a race with the gamestage. If you can´t have a crucible before you get demos, you will have a hard time. Wich means hardcore looting to be able to find all the magazines before you hit gamestage 148.
If you wanna play in the desert or snow, this will be even harder. Pretty much impossible to get it in time in the wasteland i would say, maybe even in the snow already.
Besides the crucible i generally get all the magazines i need to keep up, but only if i constantly go looting. It get´s boring only hunting for magazines.
The whole water and magazine change motivates people to min/max the game even more. I am not sure if that is what you want as a developer.