Whats that have to do with anything ? It is an MMORPG, just like the covenant story was gated for 8 weeks and now you can do it all in one go. Just like the war campaign, or any other content, WoD Garrison buildings, ofc you can come back in 1 year and just do anything in 2 weeks, or 4 weeks, if that is your goal.
It is an MMORPG, not a single player you play at YOUR OWN PACE, you either follow the game's pace when it is live, or just come back and play it as a singleplayer.
You are just blocked at the anima part, but you cannot see that it is normal to be that way, at least for most of us that included this game in their lifestyle for over 15 years. I don't care if the game is gated, as long as it is equally gated for everyone else, since I will daily/weekly log into this game and if all would be released, it will rain with "boored of wow, nothing to do, see you next patch".
From the looks of it, your purpose is to FINISH COLLECTING ALL and quit untill a next major patch. But you, yourself figure how stuff works, you won't feel misserable if you play collectibles 1 patch later since you just want it all done in 1 month's subscription period.
Yes, because you are playing the ... somewhat wrong game. You want it to be like a Farcry/Tombraider singleplayer game where you do "Platinum trophy" for collecting all stuff. And yes, in those games you can do it in 1-2 days.
But again, this is, and I said it a couple of times, an MMORPG.
Pet Battles, Collectables, are third party stuff, and the core of the game being PvE (Raiding, Dungeons, WQ (maybe)) and PvP. Even if for you Collectables is the main core that drives you to play this game, it is not the main core of the game itself