The problem with rare end game encounters is that it is a design fudge intended to fix a problem which we now know does not exist.
It's well documented that McQuaid did not believe in the end game, he believed the game would be PvP focus and those not into PvP needed to be held back with artificial time sinks and "difficulty" based on time consumption rather than complexity. When the his two attempts at making a viable PvP game failed (full PvP originally, then the Priest of Discord system) he became convinced that the only way to keep players was to make everything, and I mean EVERYTHING take ages.
But we now today this was not necessary. The number of high content consumers who exhaust themselves on content is tiny. What it does is deny the content to everyone else. The bulk of players keep playing once they start regularly doing end game encounters, then go on to play and level alts. We know it because we see it in every other game out there.
If every dragon spawned on a 4 to 6 hour timer, the game would not be easier. It would merely be more convenient to the bulk of potential players. But, hey, I guess that wouldn't be classic (like single boxing and AE limits, and whatever else has actually been changed for the better but isn't classic).
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