Time spent on these 'events' are very minimal from what we have gotten, the thing with the bells was already planned out and VERY bare bones. Same with the Easter event, they had people working on that WHILE others work on what concerns you most like mechanics (possibly even before the team switch), and prior to the catastrophe in Japan which is why they can and want to release it. The other event that was canceled probably wasn't completed and can be sacrificed until next year.

You are assuming that because they can have these events they are wasting their resources, this may not and is probably not the case. You are also assuming that fluff events aren't as important as other content and that my friend is HIGHLY debatable based on the fact that in entertainment everything is subjective. What's important to you may not be important to me, in fact I'll tell you right now, it isn't.