If you were expecting an event like Solstice of Heroes to break the mold and become something new and exceptional, you set your expectations way too high. Events like Solstice, Moments of Triumph, Guardian Games, etc serve solely to break up the general monotony of the game mid-season. It's no different to how Iron Banner comes once a month and gives PVP players another avenue to play, it isn't revolutionary, it breaks up the monotony. This year I actually thought the grind was very reasonable and the rewards from packages are half-decent, making it somewhat worth grinding for the shotgun and high stat armor alone.