Completely agreed. If you just get to tier AAA, you'll get 8 Heroic Souls. Sure, if you're focussed on getting Iron Coins for buying Relics, the Arena is the way to go. But the new cost adjustments in the Gauntlet combined with the bundle of other stuff you get from it make it really worth it. Reaching AAA, you'll get:
2 Rare souls
2 Precious souls
2 Skill Shards
8 Heroic souls (from full souls and accumulated fragments)
3 Warrior souls
600K Gold
A full set of not-commonly-found talismans
Benjamin Breeg Eddie is in the Heroic Souls starting on October 29. Let's assume Doomsday Eddie is in the following round and Crusader Eddie in the round after that. That puts Daedalus and Baroness Redan in the Heroic souls sometime in, say, December at the earliest. That's about 5 seasons of the Gauntlet before they're in the Heroic Souls, which is 40 Heroic Souls from the Gauntlet plus whatever other Heroic Souls you get from other events. 40 Heroic Souls gives you a better chance of getting Daedalus or Baroness Redan than the event souls from their own events. And you rack up fragments for a 5-star Eddie to sacrifice. And it doesn't cost you any Ironite.