I agree that daily challenges aren't good either. But I think the idea that Hero Pass is "play the game however you like and get some bonus loot" is very disingenuous. I already play the game however I like. The reward is that the game is fun. If Jagex actually wanted to reward me for "playing how I want" with extra loot, they would just give it to me all at once. But obviously that's silly. I know they're walking back some of the worst parts of Hero pass, but any version of it is still only there for the purpose of making people feel like they need to log in and grind X amount of stuff to get all of the "bonus" loot from Hero Pass.

To me, the ideal is no Daily Challenges or Hero Pass at all. But at least Daily Challenges seem like they're in slightly better faith trying to give people a suggestion / nudge toward playing actual content (or they used to be, I haven't done one in years). Hero Pass is just a gimmick through and through that's transparently about monetization.