This is a worse cash grab than Gambit. This isn't just pay to win, this is pay to win anything at all. Paid for slayers are literally the only way to make any real progress.

At least with Gambit, a high level gets you more stamina, which means more trophy drops, per peronamin. Elite Guard is all about your total seduction so that definitely rewards you for collecting girls and boosting their levels. Pero Colo rewarded you for identifying the best girls and getting their SED maxed out. Also, the boxes were reason enough to continue playing.

Without additional rewards for the risk in taking on extra difficulty, this shards thing is literally nothing more than mindless grinding.

For those saying that events like this "even out the playing field for new players", well, that's exactly what you do NOT want. You want new players playing in events tilted against them so that they see how gaining more power over time will help them win in the future. If every event has an even playing field, there's no incentive to play and get more powerful.

This event has bad written all over it. I'll have zero qualms about skipping it.