Yes, the golden pearl drop rate really is that bad, lol.
Just gather up regular pearls and transmute them. It will take longer, but you should be finding plenty of pearls in places like Stromriven and the Grotto.
I just go to the Portico dungeon (unlocked after completing Floating Land through Stormriven Hall) and harvesting pearls there. I get 5-7 pearls a run, but each run only takes about 1.5-2 minutes.
I tried the Portico about a half dozen times, and only found 1 pearl in each trip through. Not sure if I'm not finding the locations of the pearls or just bad luck.
I also tried Stormriven Hall and have very good luck finding regular pearls. Usually get 4 or 5 pearls per realm. The Golden Pearls rarely show up. Maybe 1 every 30-40 regular pearls.
