Congrats on everyone that participated in the GE, Crystal is still a praiseworthy feat.
I would just like to cite myself as an example of how difficult it is for a non-EoC or low stam bank player to make the top 100. I was at full stamina during the event, and had to use an Emblazoned Potion (AM500/Cons500) + 300 FSPs to barely make the top 100 cutoff.
I have heard it all - from players saying that one should contribute as much as they can regardless of whether they make top 100 or not, and one should upgrade one's character if one wants to reach the top 100 - but let's face it; non-EoC players/non stam bankers have a considerably lower incentive to give it their all. With this being said, I fully advocate consolation prizes as stated in this thread (i.e, an extra potion for those that get 20k+ kills, or potion rewards based on one's level/how much stamina one starts out with during the GE/stam gain they can muster per hour) in order to make Ruby a more tangible goal, ease the burden of the top 100 contributors, and appeal to the lower level players/low stam bankers.
TL;DR: The establishment of consolation prizes for those that go way above and beyond the minimum number of kills needed to qualify but don't quite make the top 100 cutoff.
Some people use it after hunting globals with one or two items to reduce the repair cost substantially and/or utilize a minimalist strategy with Reckoning by taking UB off.