*shrugs*
I always seem to play devil's advocate...
But it's a gold sink.
I see no problem with it.
There's one item grant, and they put it at the first tier, a measly 10k which can be easily earned anymore ('bout a hundred posts or so, or a few plays of BG with good tanks, or about four or five puzzles on the hardest level, or a few zOMG! quest completions, none of which are terribly involved processes, except for puzzles).
At worst, a bunch of people get pissy and whine and nothing happens.
At best, it combats the short term artificial inflation from Flynn's Booty and helps combat overall inflation.
The way I see it, at least they're not asking us to pay GC like they've been pushing at every other event lately.
Sure, it sucks that it costs so much for the upper echelons, but if you don't much care about the contest entry stuff, the most you'll be expected to pay is 1M, and if, like me, you don't give a damn about the bonus or the achievement, you're not out a whole lot.
Besides, think of how BIG the Gaia community is; it won't be long before we hit the global goals even if there are hundreds of misers like me out there only paying enough for the item grant.
Anyway, there's Spazzy's two cents, she's gonna go back to hiding in the 35th and a half dimension before someone decides to yell at her for holding this opinion.