It's really gotten kind of silly, in my humble opinion. LOL.
It already was silly when the goal total was 4-6x’s that of an average game. The players were very rational—there is no point in risking limb and livelihood in a purely honorary game. Given that every other sport has one, I guess the NHL decided they couldn’t throw in the towel.
I’d be curious about NFL pro-bowl participation (and viewership). The NBA and baseball are low enough risk that I imagine their all-star games run more or less like a high quality normal game, and competing for MVP honours would make sense.