I'm... sorry, but what exactly about a fairy tale AU event is ship-centric? The idea, at least. People were free to play out what they wanted, out of any sort of variation they wanted. If they chose something that focused on ships, that's their choice. Many roles weren't shippy, and a lot of the things played out weren't shippy either.
We had the mistletoe before, and that one's always crazy popular. We had the Halloween event before, which wasn't shippy in itself at all. Before that, it was the clothings!event. Before that, it was the blizzard. Neither of those is shippy in itself.
So that's... One shippy replay, out of two huge, long lasting events, and two smaller ones. I don't think it's fair to say the events have been very ship focused.
Player-plots is a different issue altogether, and it's true there have been many overarching plots that involve ships - Sakura and Tachi are super shippy, for example (though to be fair, I would LOVE to explore more aspects of him - I just don't know them yet! Canon needs to hurry up). The TRC foursome has been pretty present, too, but I think it's unfair to label it as simply "romantic drama"? I mean, sure, that's a huge part of it, but.. idk. It also involves Sei being a murderer asshole and Fuuma's childhood traumas and issues and the twins' relationship with each other and a bunch of other things that aren't necessarily romantic in nature or just shippy. And then, idk. There isn't much more? Not that stands out so much, at least.
It's a CLAMP game, too. Many of their series revolve around pairings, or have ships as very important aspects of their characters' lives.
All that said, I'm all for having more gen-oriented events or things to help out with gen CR. I kept asking people to help me with the VD's idea I had precisely because I felt it was totally alienating to those who weren't in OTPs and I don't want that.
On the other hand, I love my ships, I love characters who are very ship-oriented (see: my entire list pretty much), and I love special days, so I don't particularly care for skipping VD's, when it'd be just one day of event.
However, if more people are sick of ships at this point, we can change things up. Last night in chat I came up with this idea for a major event involving lost memories and searching for them (it's less TRC-y than it sounds, I swear), which would help TONS to get characters to know each other more? I was definitely planning on having it happen soon.