Not being able to skip cutscenes...

[Squintina]

Read the patch notes and don't be selfish.

There are million other things you can do if you don't like it but no other way to see the story. And it's not like the new rewards aren't exceptionally generous. 4x the xp and tokens for something that takes 3x as long.

exp hasn't been confirmed to be much greater yet. I had a castrum run and while the exp was a bit greater, it was nowhere near 2x or 3x what it was before, even though my run was 2x as long. (didn't get Praet yet)

Back on topic, maybe the 30min penalty is bugged, or maybe they made it so leaving praet regardless of party size might do it? Who knows. Will have to wait for others to have similar issues to find out.