I haven't really found love gems to be a problem on the JP server. By January I had already idolized all the N's and R's so there weren't any more gems to get from those (besides new ones they added), and yet from only spending 5000 yen for 86 gems, I ranked high enough for the second copy of the SR from a January event, a February event, both March events, both April events, a May event, a June event, and still had love gems left over for three 10+1 pulls. I mean if your expectation is that you'll do a 10+1 pull every week, no that won't happen, but I've never felt like I wasn't making progress towards my next goal.