I couldn't realistically afford to pull for Esther first time round, and looking at the weeks leading up to her it's clear why (listed newest to oldest):

• Dragoon Kain (new meta DPS, FF4 supremacy, and I love jumper units)
• Xenogears units (not that I successfully pulled any, but I probably did a round of the step-up)
• Divine Beast Chow (new king of CoW morale gen hype, and still getting used)
• FF5 units (I love the game but obvious skip, although I probably threw tickets at NV Lenna)
• Tulien (skip)
• Taivas (most meta STMR ever!)
• WW Tiana (I should have skipped this, but I was sucked in by her versatility and I dunno, holiday cheer I suppose)

Those are some heavy hitters building up to the release of a premium unit that would permanently shift the meta. I don't know whether or not NieR is going to by the meta hype that everyone thinks it will be, but at least I've been afforded the opportunity to save up for a change.