The short answer? I'm not sure that we can! At least for the higher buy-in events.
The fact is, the 'average' poker player isn't playing these events, and they are not likely to; not this year, not ever. Sure, some serious recreational players might satellite in or save up for a few years to take their shot at a bucket list item from time to time, but even those players are not having the 'average' poker player's experience.
For the real amateurs, any relevance that is attached to these types of prestige events is a kind of voyeuristic experience of seeing the 'others' of the poker world, the richest and best players in the poker community, duking it out for position within the top tier of a hierarchy in which average players will never compete. The vast majority of poker players (in my anecdotal experience) around the world just play for fun, or a few bucks here and there with their buddies around a kitchen table - their sights are set on one day making it to a real money game in a local casino or cardroom, not competing for a bracelet. How many of them become skilled enough players that they can build a bankroll for a trip to Vegas?
Some, certainly, but not many. For the rest - for MOST - I think the 'relevance' of these types of events are similar to the relevance of buying a lottery ticket: the chance to dream, to spend time planning how they would share and spend the winnings, imagining the experience of bluffing their favourite player at the final table - it's the period of excitement that comes BEFORE the numbers are called: that's what average players get out of events like these, the exhilaration of 'what if' and 'why not me'. The reality of who actually wins them is largely irrelevant to the majority of poker-playing folks who just want to come along for the ride, watch the show, and dream the dream.
