I totally disagree and believe BB are moving in the right direction, my thought is this Halloween is the most balanced event we have ever had and I wont be alone in thinking this.
I also totally disagree that its not fair on new players as new players have never had it as easy in the game and that will continue to happen.
Im very surprised you dont see the need to offer additional stuff to high level long standing plays and just throw the new players missed revenue stream in the equation and as it does not include yourself you are blinded that high level actives can also contribute greatly to the revenue of the game and as I said before its balance.
My thought is like i said before as far as i am concerned and from in game/guild chats and indeed the fact I have never seen an event feedback thread with so few complaints as this one has the majority of players also like this event as its balanced unlike most previous events.
So although still some way to go and no excuses for the downtime and lockouts at the start event I think BB have done well this event and I for 1 am looking forward to future events based on this one.
In fact my main real gripe would be as a long time anno player that maybe you should be grateful the settlers still has events as anno stopped them after Easter and since no further development for anno and its now in maintenance mode, I can only hope settlers does not follow suit.