I disagree. Having elusive, cosmetic rewards is a good thing in an MMO. There have to be rare drop mounts and transmogs and pets and everything in between. I think that the Paragon system is actually really good. 10k rep is a small enough amount that with dedication you can get a couple per month to have your shot at a rare drop.
Now, if power gains (252 conduit upgrades, socket bonuses, etc) were rewards from paragon boxes, that would be a problem. But rare drops are a pinnacle of this game genre and shouldn’t be removed from a grind. Yes RNG sucks sometimes, but there’s always next time.
I do agree that the codex grind had its good parts. A system you can always find some way to work closer to, which in this case has 2 significant power upgrades tied to it is an okay system and I don’t mind these types of grinding. But there should also be another way to obtain these rewards. (Yes, adamant vaults does this to an extent)
I do kinda wish the reputation rate had been 1:1 instead of the 1:0.5 we have, but thats just me.
Going further into these rewards though, I don’t like what the rewards are. The gem slots in particular. I know there are discussions on this in another thread, but I want to see baseline gem slots come back. Jewelcrafting is a spec that hasn’t gotten a ton of love since they were removed as gems are less frequently needed. Bring back having 3 gem slots on a chest or a weapon. It was fun to be able to customize in that way.