Nowhere on the event page does it say it's to help players. It says to run dungeons, get the tome, get item. Repeat. I mean, if it does help new players at the same time that's great, but I don't see that as why the event was designed.
By this point we honestly should be looking at end of HW- end of SB players if we want to realistically get as many people caught up to ShB before the exp, but the event doesn't focus on that either. Linkshells, pf and the NN are where I'm seeing most people getting brought up to speed more quickly.
Edit: If the issue people had with the event were PURELY altruistic, and they wanted to help the most people possible before ShB I'd be fine with that. But that complaint always seems to fall after 'Increase the drops so we can work less.' So I'm not sure how to feel about it.
I didn't mean for my post to come across as harsh. If it did I apologize. Like I said I know several people who see this as not worth their time, so they're doing other things in game or playing other games. I see people here saying the event is not worth their time: it would be better to do other things with it then. Logic.