Since you quit anyway why do you bother about those silly 40 AA's (still you can get other 40 if you subscribe now...)? I mean, you said you are veteran and you call couple AA's bitchslap?
The rules about event and rewards were pretty clear and I just don't get why you are upset.
In my opinion for once Funcom did something (5th anniversary) really good. I guess you can't make everyone happy though.