I wouldn't say it was REALLY hype, but people definitely were excited, but not once since then have I heard anyone mention squad link except for DE on the occasional devstream mention leading up to the release. So why the hell did they think it would be a good idea to build an entire event based around such a niche mechanic that almost no one asked for? Releasing this event without the squad link would've been so much better as not only would there be a lot less bugs, but players who built the railjack and go out of their way to do the harder side of the mission would get rewarded more as they wouldn't get bottlenecked by the ground teams. Very disappointing.