Considering how many, many of us dislike having to set timers and log in *constantly* to finish, NO. IMO it's refreshing to not have all this anxiety around finishing events, or collecting Neighbor Requests, or *having* to set a timer for Ivy Collections because if you miss one you can't finish. I am enjoying the relaxed pace immensely. Many many of us have been asking for more time to work on storylines, and to not stress out over Ivy/Troll Camp, or stress out over Neighbor requests taking 2 days to fill. So this "slower pace" is IMO S8 listening to the majority of us, and making the events enjoyable because we don't have to be so, so strict about everything, like many previous events were.
If you chop most all the Dead Trees first, and get most all the Hex O'Lanterns needed, you can do Adventures up front (assuming you have enough Gold Apples), and you will need fewer Cow collections, plus fewer Ghost, Bush, Sawmill, Crab Apple Tree, and Ivy collections.
A number of long time players have noted, it's helpful to have several dozen of the animals when needing animal collections. You can get enough from a round of collections to do an event craft, if you have more than a few. If you haven't gotten a drop from the Adventure. Only 10 cows will make it very difficult to finish without logging in a lot.
If your Ivy has a 16 hour timer, please report that to Support, it's supposed to be 12 hours.