+1 I complained about this a bunch of times.

Seems like either they realized they could make more money by just spoon feeding crates directly to plat spenders via event vendors.

OR

(I'll give them the benefit of the doubt here) They did this to get new mythics and krakens out there quickly to the general population so more people can participate in newer content.

If they plan on releasing arcanes and the situation is the same then its the former, and honestly that would be pretty disappointing..