I'm glad my post got so many responses, even if they weren't all positive. I never imagined the event wasn't well liked, I really enjoyed it when I was playing it. It was grindy, but it was also easily ignored and went on for a whole month. I had ample time to get all the stuff I wanted and never felt stressed or rushed in doing so. I suppose it may have been a bit annoying farming FATEs if I hadn't been leveling at the time, but since I was travelling all over the place questing I was just doing FATEs as I ran around anyhow and barely even noticed getting it all done.