I think this event is a nice idea. Been playing for years, but well, I play this game for the story. This gives me an excuse to level some new chars. The crafting bit I'm going to find a bit annoying, I know that, but like somebody said earlier, having played for years, that will be much easier for me than for a new player. I have all the mats lying around anyway.
At the same time, this makes sure that new players entering the game will be encountering veterans. It's actually a nice way of getting new people in, and for us old people to get new people to play with.
And at the same time, I'll be getting rewards for doing what I like doing anyway.
On the other hand, yes, I'm at my cap. And I'm going to be deleting some alts to make room. I do feel it would have been a nice gesture to just give more slots. I know a discount was mentioned, but we have yet to learn what kind of discount this will be. That said, even with more slots, the character selection screen is already a tad annoying, showing only six chars per page, and reordering them whenever you log in to one.