After reading this, I caved and chopped one tree that I wanted to get rid of anyway, so now I am in 19th place with 5 points. If I have to deal with the pop-ups for a week, I at least want my trade ticket.
The leader in my group currently has a little over 5300 points and there are a few in the 3k range. I thought about it and I think I am ok with not getting any of the goal prizes this time around. It is just my way of protesting leaderboards in general, not that it will make any difference to S8.
Your question is thought provoking...... perhaps a daily full energy Alicorn might be worth it. Or maybe that along with some number of gems. It cannot be anything that could be obtained by direct purchase, or it would not be worth spending more than it would cost to buy it outright. The only thing I can think of that would tempt me to actually ever compete at this point would probably be the Love Shack or something equal to it. And even then, I don?t think I would be willing to spend very much. The reason I love(d) Castle Story so much is because it is (was) not a competitive game. Those are a dime a dozen and they just do not interest me.