I think you may want to change your perspective on this a little bit.
Yes, the forester event is a little bit competitive, with a first and second place prize, but the 'runners up', that is, everyone else, still gets participation medals and can still progress through even if they are last.
You can earn rewards regardless of your performance, while intimate knowledge about the event, as well as skill and quickness, which all comes through practice, is also rewarded.
If there's one guy consistently winning by half a mile (don't assume exploit, but do keep an eye on them), there will be a time where he isn't even playing the event, in fact depending on who is available on your server, lots of people have a good chance to win.
It's a very simple task that everyone can have a go at, a race where everyone is the same speed (or at least they are supposed to be), everyone is on an equal playing field. Unlike actual PvP or almost any other activity that isn't a festival, stats aren't brought into the equation.
Imagine if there was actual PvP fighting involved in the event, there'd be a bloodbath and people would lose their minds. As much as I long for the return of the Bombadil server, the crafting event is not PvP. It would be thematically inappropriate to have that gameplay in a crafting event.
If there are exploits, know this. There was one man responsible for the entire event and he has a lot of work on his plate, and there isn't really any internal testing teams for this kind of thing AFAIK. So once again, players have to test it on live.
Feedback is great, because at the present moment its still being looked at and adjusted. So if you see anything sus, send a bug report.
The event seems functionally sound, that is, you can play it and it generally works as intended. But in order to find any exploits and squash them, people need to witness it happen, the developer needs to be made aware.
Focusing entirely on the competitive aspect of the event and being upset because you didn't place first isn't a great mindset. In this case, you should focus on yourself, worry less about the others and just do your best. It's not supposed to be a super serious and competitive event.
I personally don't buy that whole "negative behavior and can filter through a server and affect the community" thing. Something with a competitive aspect is not a negative thing on its own. It's how players see it.
Having an incentive to be the fastest can make the event much more engaging. But at the same time you shouldn't feel stressed about winning the event. Lotro is one of those 'play at your own pace' sort of games so I can certainly see where people are coming from when they are presented something that can be seen as competitive, right in the heart of a level 10 area.
I wouldn't worry about winning, I would say report bugs or exploits though. Because that does affect everyone regardless of skill level.
It's really down to how people treat the event, if someone takes such an event super seriously and start attacking others over it, then the issue is on them, not the event. If someone is frustrated over the fact that others may beat them and focus more on missing out over what they gain, that's also on them.
