Not a bug. I've noticed that the prizes for the quests and the final rewards aren't what they used to be. I have a hedge maze in Beta, I'm thinking of nuking it. I only get coins and the odd trade goods from it, and it eats a lot of space. A few shrines in that space would be far more useful. Also, doing the quests, 5 goods as a reward is just pathetic. What I'm doing now is going as far as I reasonably can without finishing an event unless I really, really want the final prize.
Yes, the "OR" as part of the event is a good thing. Pity it's not on the final quest of the event, "gain control of a province". I am already so far ahead on the map on most worlds, simply because of the infernal non-stop events, that I have to negotiate. CE troops just don't hack it against AF defense.
The biggest problem is that the developers have stopped listening to their customers (us) and only to the ka-ching of the money players. I know they need to pay the electric bills, but I've seen too many people get fed up with the game because there is no recovery time anymore between events. We were supposed to have 6 minis the first year - we had 5 or 6 in the first 6 months. Plus the regulars. It's killing the fun of playing.