The reason why you quit the game in the first place was because you took the event and being at the tip of the community too seriously. Instead of chasing the meta by chasing toons you yourself expressed disappointment in for being "not very iconic," and just listing the optimal farming "phoenix to thrawn to r2 to palp etc," try farming the toons you want. The rest will follow. You will be forced to farm very specific toons for hero's journey characters, but if you don't want to, then to hell with doing it. Get a guild that isn't uptight to the point of telling you what to be farming but is still serious about the game and you'll progress faster than you expect. Farm toons for your own reasons. Reasons better than just chasing the meta:
Whether it be for the iconic-ness or their kit or your own theorycraft in your head or outlandish predictions for what will be meta or even just if they look cool and you want them. You're just gonna be disappointed once you catch back up and the same thing happens again but this time with a much bigger paywall.