I got all bar one of mine, all three alliances, from Cyrodiil treasure chests - I got sick of trying to get the last one so bought it from a guild trader. I bought the maps from guild traders and went into Cyrodiil on characters I had from all three factions.
Plenty of maps are for sale at 1k but if you shop around you can get them for 500 gold or less. I have made my money back by selling the excess motifs through the guilds.
Australian on PS4 NA server.
Everyone's entitled to an opinion.
I got the majority of mine from IC chests and Cyrodiil treasure chests. You'll only get ones for the alliance of that character though. They're fairly cheap in guild traders too.