Couple things that would make WR better:
1) don't show it to the player before they get close to it
2) have the place "burn out" after the event is completed
3) decouple spreading of the fire from Goblin raid - the WR still was raded, but spreading of the fire should be tied to something that happens when player arrives at the scene. Mayhaps a structure damaged during raid collapses starting the fire. Maybe Flaming Fists do something while trying to get inside that causes the fire. Something that would make it less obvious that things have been frozen in time, waiting for PC to show up.
None of this would resolve the basic problem: that once arrived, you can spend an unlimited number of hours doing something else, and then come back to find the situation unchanged, as long as you do not take a long rest, while spending 30 seconds to take a long rest will immediately make this fail.
And this is exclusively the result of attempting to make up for the lack of in-world time by using a clock based on the player's long rests. This idea of an "alternative" event clock overlooks that *every* clock is an event clock, so really, why not implement proper in-world time in the first place since it is clearly needed?
With regard to maps and the placement of story events, you're right, but I can forgive that more easily than a global trivialization of time and distance.
