Tbh the only people making this era a non-event are the ones saying it is a non-event. Maybe it hasn't been as "action-packed" or heavily promoted like others, but it's an era nonetheless, whether one likes FFS or not. Moreover, we've had a surprise release and a Grammy performance...I mean, that's a big non-event
I mean, Diamonds dropped on September 26th 2012 and the lyric video only came out on October 15th

Between those releases, refresh my memory but was she promoting it everywhere or something? I feel like this era is not off to a very different start than the last one in the sense that it isn't being super frontloaded promotion-wise, but maybe that's just me.