I think the person is only referencing the final five, repeatable rewards.
The Campaign Pass gives 200 stars for free in its comparable “extra” rewards (so not the Tarot, mythic, etc… — those all require play to unlock by payers and non-payers alike) — meaning no extra effort required for the Power Orb if one shells out the cash and completed the event as any other player.
In this case, the money buys the right side extras (just like the Campaign pass gives the extras of Tarot, mythic, etc…) but does not give the bottom five rewards for free. They require effort to unlock — so one has paid for the privilege to grind for them; in effect, the money pays for the extra goodies throughout as well as the opportunity to extend the event (if they choose to, to your point that I don’t find at all unreasonable. A person could easily leave these on the table if said person hates grinding and would still have Heliodor and the other troops — the “non-extras” actually paid for).
The simplest counterargument to that position is to point out it’s drawing a false-equivalency: if one treats this as a two-tiered pass (like the Campaign Pass) then by buying $15 of extra booster one could get these extras “for free” (like in the Campaign Pass).
What we have here is a person who bought the standard pass mad that, rather than be given the Power Orb for free, is “forced” to grind for it instead — but already it is easy to see this is more generous (even if the prize is less rewarding) in principle because one can’t grind beyond the standard rewards in one case, but does have the opportunity here 