I should enjoy the journey of getting nothing from a "reward system"?

Pretty much. You should enjoy playing, & getting the emote should be the cherry on top. If you're not having fun & you're only playing in the hopes of getting that one specific emote, you're only hurting yourself.

My brother in Christ I've spent thousands of hours in the game. I'm not solely playing to get an emote. What I'm saying is having zero assured methods to obtain a legendary emote is bizarre.

My brother in Muhammad, not really. RNG is part & parcel of rpgs.

This is beyond RPG RNG. This is Gacha territory. The flimsy logic of emotes and ornaments being account bound and on a lockout system but ships, sparrows, shells not being is insane. I can switch to another character and pull any ship, sparrow, or ghost I've unlocked because they are all account bound. There is zero reason to not have the same protection be applied to all previously obtained cosmetic rewards. If I obtained a new cosmetic every time and it took me until the heat death of the universe to get the last emote then so be it. No reason for the current system.