I am one of those players who get 1st place fleet rewards daily and I'm playing this game for less than a year (so, my shard is relatively young). I know the struggle to climb to the top and, since the release of all those LSB, Fleet Arena has become even more frustrating to the point that F2P have almost no chances, not to see the top, but to get any crystals at all. Honestly, while I think that removing entirely crystals from fleet arena would be an error, some kind of rebalance would be benefical.
Yet, concentrate even more crystals in GAC, as OP suggests in his first option, would lead to an even worse game state, as it would put even more crystals in the hands of those who already get plenty.
Currently, there are two major source of crystals: GAC and Fleet Arena. The first depends on the whole player's roster, the second on a portion of it. So, I think that some reliable crystal rewards should be added to game modes that are not entirely dependent on the single player's roster. In that regard, RotE, Territory Wars (as OP suggests in option 2) or Territory Battles seem the best candidates as they require guild members collaboration. Also, an entirely new game mode would be much appreciate.
