So what is this about content becoming harder with the Savage cleared in 9 hours

[Isala]

Bite bait for funsies
First tier was always easier to "let people get accustomed to new rotations and job change".

Asphodelos was cleared in ~12 hours.
Eden's Gate in ~12 hours.
Deltascape ~14 hours.

The world race community is also getting better, if Deltascape was released today it would've been destroyed.
We also need to take in account that the clear time gets exponentially longer the longer it is due to breaks.

It's amusing that somehow, nobody mentions Gordias in any of these conversations about "First tier" difficulty. Almost as if this game didn't always need to be baby's first MMO, and actually used to have some teeth.