To many times I see someone post "this event is a money grab, you only can get the ... with spending gems, its only for p2p or p2w players".
Then I always think lets look at the event. Most events need gems to finish but using gems can be done by saving gems, you dont have to buy them.
Is it really so strange that you have to use gems to get a new legendary monster?
I dont play to many other games so i cant really compare but I believe that every game that uses an in-game currency that's harder to get uses this to get the better items.
There always 2 ways get this currency the easy way (and all companies wants you to use that one because they want to make a profit)buy it with real money or do tasks to get it and save up till you have enough.
So back to the events, as long time player there was a time you could get all without using gems but I understand that they have changed that, dont get me wrong I like getting all without spending gems ;). Because I went from f2p to p2p and back to f2p again I take a good look at every event and if its worth spending my gems on and some are and some aren't. so for example the Ingenica event, I think its a nice event a worth spending my saved gems on i will try to get her. The other event: Dr Victor's Patrons Is this worth spending gems? in my opinion not, I will probably reach the second node because I have enough gold to buy all rares and I will buy some cells of legendaries I want anyway.
My Conclusion, take a good look at every event make up your mind if its worth your gems, but as long if as you can finish the event with gems it its not p2p.