Admittedly, there is no reason that ALL the events couldn't be done like the Halloween, Forgebowl, etc... quest lines and offer alternatives for any potential scout/sector/province/research quests.
As long as the alternatives are rather hefty or outright punishing, it balances everything out and allows everyone to simply play the game their own way.
for example, if a quest pushes you towards "acquire 2 sectors", give a heavy alt like "...OR have all 3 levels of GE completed".
Do that early on in an event, and to bypass the forced sector requirement could mean that a player who chooses the alternative GE route ends up stuck shortly afterwards for 3-4 days!
(not enough by any means to prevent a player from fully completing the event, but perhaps, enough to cost them a few diamonds for an early reward they really, really want!
)
Or else, instead of say, "gain control over a province", off an option for "...OR donate 750 goods to the guild treasury". (HMA cost)
So sure, you can save up a province, but most people are probably going to end up really hurting on goods to do so!
Alternatives should be encouraged, but also to balance them out, they should always require like 10x the work/cost of the 'main' option for bypassing those forced c-map/researches.