The problem with all these features (this, event, GBG, the Egypt): You work hard, it cost you plenty of time, you may even make some sacrifices to play, and at the end of the day you do not have nothing, nothing to show...
It makes you feel that you are losing your time just for nothing at all.
I disagree about GBG -- at least if you are in a competitive guild, there's a SOH and plenty of battle/neg prizes to be had. Requires a goods or attack boost (or both) focused city, but there are a lot of rewards available if one has the time.
st pats was an awful event. and xiv's read on my post is the right one -- preserve the aspect of daily prizes (of course discounted with the chum, like obs prints) because those daily prizes are not only familiar but well appreciated part of game play.
seriously would reconsider my decision to ignore the event on the live servers if there were dailies.
as for egypt, i do not anticipate playing it even once till i hear there have been serious improvements. and once the road "enhancement" rolls out to the live servers, those other settlements will be dead to me, too.