All of what you are saying is true and to a large extent you are all experienced and later stage players. New players may not have the "time in grade" so to speak to figure that out. I am proposing something that would give newer players a "boost" and experienced players might find interesting and even useful upon occasion. I know that in this current event I could have used a second scout without spending gems or instants to get the job done in the time I wanted it done. And since I am upgrading residences for Elementals, a 6th builder would not hurt. "I" would find it useful. If you do not that is certainly your option to speak against it, point out other options, or turn it into Vision Vapor if you want to.
I do appreciate the differing points of view, for example:
Timers pretty much serve this function except they are arguably more equitable.
E.G. a "scout" instant would be worth 5 hours to a newer player but 60 hours to an older player. 4x14h timers (like this event offers) is worth 56h to everyone.
While true, every person in a different chapter getting the same event building gets different values for that same building. Why not this as well? Inequality of use is not a point against the idea as it is used throughout the game.
On the other hand, the more the game provides to make it easier to get things done the psychological pressure to buy diamonds is reduced so it's really not in Inno's best interest (and perhaps the game's either since if Inno doesn't make a reasonable return they will shut the game down), to provide too much help.
The gamers want it cheap or free, but the purpose of the game from the developers point of view is to make it profitable. So a lot of good and useful ideas will, naturally, go by the wayside.
AJ
AJ's post is more to the point I am looking for. Not that there are many ways to accomplish the same thing, for there are througout the game in the decisions we make every day, it is a reason why it may not be seen as a "good idea" by the developers.
To that point, because it is not something that is readily available, such as the Trading Post or Wishing Well, the effect on diamond purchases would be marginal at best, possibly hardly detectable. This is especially true considering the posts on these forums where people are setting up cities filled with diamond mines in them so they will not have to buy diamonds for awhile. The develpoers allowed that to happen, why not this?