I too am seeing low numbers, particularly with purple gear.
With the grind being increased with mods, futility only grows. Progress and player satisfaction would benefit greatly from a restructuring of drop rates for character shards and gear. We are still gated behind raid gear and mods. Those by themselves are quite a grind at current pacing.
The Essence of a game aging gracefully and staying relevant is to reduce the tedium of older content. In SWGoH, that old grind is character shards and pre-raid gear. With the introduction of the mod challenges and the frequency of other challenges involving specific character types (Scondrels, Jawa, First Order, etc.), there is an excessive grind just to participate in current content, much less succeed. When players are faced with such a daunting task they get discouraged.
I will never spend money or crystals on any element of this game that is pure RnG. A piece of raid gear in the shop, perhaps. Having a roster full of characters is why people play this game. That, in and of itself, does not guarantee success but it is the essential part in Giving players gratification. Pushing said characters into viability for raids, arena, and challenges is another grind completely. That, in my opinion is where the spending should start for players.
I, for one, would be more inclined to spend some extra cash developing squads once they are leveled and starred to 7. I have not and will not spend on the tedium of character and gear grinding when the end result still doesn't give me anything useful.
CG would do well to dramatically increase drop rates on pre- raid gear and character shards. Those grinds are outdated and present barriers that do not induce spending in the vast majority of players, only frustration.
