And then they put in something like the old Eureka and people complain it takes too long and is too grindy. I get that players want more content to churn through but the devs really can't win either way if they do that. They could easily make content take longer but at that point the game becomes a job. It becomes something where you are literally punished if you don't put in your several hours every single day.

Has it swung too far in the other direction? Sure, I can see that argument but I haven't really seen an acceptable answer for what exactly the devs are supposed to do in order to please the millions of people who play the game.