I'm the first one to admit I don't ever go to pay events but I definitely enjoy the things they bring into the game (hello sigil staff!). I AM curious though how the first DR prices for items were compared to these last few? I believe I've read a few times that things have gone up to really extreme prices (not the straight auction but just general items sold off the merchant shelves).
Could the fact that so many people (probably) afk script these events to amass a huge amount of BS a probable cause for this hyper inflation? And if they are so rare in catching afk scripters perhaps they really want to make an example out of OP (for right or wrong) in hopes of stemming future scripters to only make the situation worse.