first of all, Bots are so 2007. We are all bots. We all set auto combat and go sleep, eat, to the gym, to the bar etc
Secondly, I think the current event is insanely predatory. It hides the real cost of those untradeable jewels behind random drops from a gatcha box, which you then have to combine at a 10% success rate to get the jewel you want. And I feel terrible that a game I have enjoyed, and played on and off for 18 years has sunk THAT low. There's mobile joke games that haven't hit the bottom of that particular barrel yet, L2 has.
Thirdly I think untradeable items make NCWest a monopoly in item supply. That means NCWest can decide that you need to spend 1000, 2000 or 20,000/month to play, because there is no other way to get the items you need. There is no market. There's just a monopoly supplier. And no I don't want that.