I have no problems with marquee events, but here's an alternative for those who want one:
Epic event. You are assigned a team, comprised of event units. One of which is the new character. You must choose a team of characters from your roster to fight with this team. Winning nets you 10 shards, and eliminates every character you used from being used for the rest of the event. Characters you select must be gear 9+, and the star level requirement goes up as your new character Star level goes up.
Theoretically, this rewards both long term players and whales, while leaving newer players not able to achieve much more than 3* without waiting to farm or buying packs. Importantly, both whales and long term players will find it exceedingly difficult to 7* the character from the event, but it is theoretically possible.