Well, I didn't do all the research on a single account, my wife also helped on hers. But yes, it did cost a pretty penny, all in all. August and September were relatively slow months, event-wise.
I agree that the lopsided proportions are probably a bug. It makes no sense to have rare 1* purple and yellow, but plentiful 2* for both colors, and vice versa for Green/blue.
It's probably a very deeply buried bug, hard to go through all the duct tape, twigs, and spit to find it and fix it.