I think they knew full well what they were giving out with Pagos. The only reason i can think is that they wanted the players occupied to the point where they would be stuck doing their relic grind up until the next patch released. I see no reason to believe they will make any monumental changes to this. At least not until the next patch is directly in line of sight and no concern of unsubbing.

Considering the fact that players are doing it (myself included) it is to be frank a successful move. The lack of acknowledgement and response to any of this Pagos backlash tells me they knew this was coming and decided to weather it. No dev posts, No community team response. Nothing.