Who the hell cares about this artifical, disconnected event? I know i sure don't and the majority of people i met in the game didn't even know it is there.
There are a crapton more important things which need attention, this is certainly not one of it.
Edit: Now i do realize this is nothing that really takes away from the (so goddamn much needed) development, but i just feel it's like the alerts, just on an even more remote level where the player has a hard time feeling "connected" to the event.
Edit²: Ok this sounded more hostile than intended lol.
So i'm giving them credit for doing something with the game to try to enhance our experience.