I hated event Pokémon with a passion growing up. I bought my game boy on the US, but I would live half of the year in a country neglected by Nintendo, once back on the states for the working season (my parents) you could only get them by traveling somewhere stupid like New York (I lived in the other coast). Even when they started using mall wifi on game stores as events I still always associated it with a life I would never have and didn’t even bother as I could never legitimately complete a Pokédex legitimately so why try to start now. I can see how that would work in Japan perhaps, but maybe the country kids felt left out as well.