Aw, Firn, you're absolutely not alone in your opinion. For me personally this year's event is the easiest of them all, it even beats the Halloween event, which was already super-duper easy. And I was disappointed at the beginning that we don't get the key fragments through digging. But now I really wish all future events looked like this one, I'm having awesome fun this year.
I am also not able to understand what, why and how people do things wrong, it's all pretty clear to me. 4 fragments an hour, takes about 5 minutes average to collect. To get a key (8 fragments) it takes a person about 10 minutes. It's not much trouble or effort. So forgive me if I call people lazy or say that they are
bitching/whining/heavy complaining (is what I'm going to call it from now on).
I'm really enjoying every event on this site, even the ones that seem difficult to me (like fertilizing and watering the plants and remembering to harvest or what combination I did and which ones to make yet....

)
Most of all, I am aware that those events are your and starkad's hard work, many hours of it. And I hate seeing people be so ungrateful. Plus, they are very impolite about their complaints. "It's so hard" and so on. It's not. And there are many nicer ways to say you don't like something.
For once, you can just come here and say "aw, man, it seems so difficult! but I'll try and see :)"/"I'm not sure how it works, can someone help me?"/"is anyone able and willing to sell a few keys/key fragments for a reasonable price? I'm having super trouble this year" and so on. You don't have to post a list of things you dislike/hate/wish were different. Last year was last year, this year is this year, and next year, well, for all we know we may not get an event, because you're such heavy complainers. Just appreciate what you have and hope next year is better for you. And for god's sakes, don't forget there are people willing to help! Start a thread in Buying section, post in charities, ASK. We don't bite.