Galactic Challenges Are Ruined

I think there is something to be said for the visibility of it and morale though. Previously, you might find a way to accomplish all feats. Congratulations, you've beaten the challenge. Now, it's,  "Can you challenge yourself to pay $20 a month? Can you accomplish the feat of maxing a marquee character right away?"

It's just a bad look to call these things "challenge feats" when they are literally just spend money. There's not any sense of accomplishment. Additionally, the optics of it are that previously, f2p could accomplish all four, and not you stare at the challenge and half are going to be incomplete just because. That affects the psyche. It won't matter as much for new players who didn't know the old system, but it's understandable to see why people are upset. 

I'm hoping that the ability to spend episode tokens on whatever you want can offset the apparent loss of rewards, especially to loss of shard shop currency due to changes to other events and structures. I think that at least was a nice change to raid rewards. Time will tell if the change here is nice as well. Although I for one don't equate two pieces of gold gear on the same level as an omicron mat, so we'll have to see if the prices make up for the loss of shards shop currency in actuality. Someone has probably already done the math.