I think they want to both keep people grinding notes for a long time (and tbh without the notes grind the front would be dead now since the mettle there isn't worth it) but also not let people get a two-seater too easily. I think this is the first two-seater that you can get in game without paying real money or getting friends to sub, so of course it needs to be really grindy and hard to get.
And yes, there's multiseaters in game for free but 1. they're not two-seaters 2. they're from savage, so not grindy but very hard to get.

That said...yes please, make them drop more easily cause the way people burn through skirmishes now makes them stressful to farm (and it might just get worse as people get more honors)