This is the issue with rng. Even if an item is 1% chance, in the same way that some players will get it first try, statistically with the number of players MMO's tend to have someone is going to hit the extreme bad luck side of that too and spend a few thousand attempts.

It's why many games nowadays have adopted pity timers once you've gone well above the average, because being that person who spends 20 times the average grind for zero reward isn't fun. It can kill a players interest in that game, which is bad business. For some reason MMO's have been slow to pick up on this.

"It's the way it is" doesn't make it a great system.