All very solid ideas.

In particular, both reducing the point discrepancy between regular fish and spectral fish and moving the mount to the 500k achievement would have fixed so much. It would both have given the content a longer lifespan since you'd have a long term goal to work towards and it would have significantly reduced the number of "leavers" when a spectral current didn't spawn, since even earning less than 10k would be progress. Once they get that 10k, most people simply stop doing it.

Adding a use to fish you catch instead of stuffing your bags with vendor junk would be great too. Overall you should feel your trip was worthwhile, rather than feeling like the dice rolled a "miss" because you got no currents.