If not a serious event then don’t have it as an ISU event. Then the end of year fun can really be fun with nothing on the line but money.
I don't care whether it's an ISU event or not, nor if it's even held. Of course, I'll watch the actual skating because it beats not having skating to watch, but it's not circled on my calendar.
By the way, the skaters don't seem to take it seriously either. Ashley Wagner and Adam Rippon previewed the event on their podcast. I didn't particularly care for either of their skating while they were competing, but their podcast is hilarious, and highly recommended.
My recollections from the podcast are that Adam didn't even know how many times he'd participated (once), and Ashley had vague memories of being a team captain a time or two. Neither really knew exactly how skaters were picked. At one point, they had it confused with a made-up event they once participated in where the teams were based on continents, rather than countries. This is in great contrast to their vivid memories of the World Championships, which they discussed on other episodes.
They said the skaters were really tired by this point, and mainly wanted to survive the event. They both appreciated the team aspect because they had a box to cheer them on to the end of their long programs, but neither liked the phony rah-rah, and they alluded to others who were uncomfortable with it, too, but didn't name any names or nationalities. They said one year, Scott Moir didn't want to bother with the event at all, but I don't remember how that all ended up.
What they did enjoy were the large and supportive Japanese audiences who cheered for every skater... and the money "just for showing up." No surprises there. They also said it was one of the few competitions where they got to mingle more with skaters in other disciplines, which is not something I'd considered. They also said the only way to make a living in the sport was to be a Japanese skater or skate in Japanese shows, so the exposure was important.