Yeah totally. I don't think they intentionally made decisions in that way. I just don't think those game design concessions aged well. Thankfully we can work with them now though. You're right though that the animations in the disc era really padded battle lengths. Jeez, just thinking of using summons in the FF series is giving me flashbacks lol.
So Xi didn't make himself leader for life? And he doesn't exert significant control over China's government?
I totally understand the limitations of the time and still love the games, but really that doesn't take away from the fact that these games require a ton of time to complete. Newer JRPGs take this into account and attempt to address it in various ways which I very much appreciate.
Fully recommended playing emulated with a speed mode. None of the old jrpgs respect your time and I legit can't play them without that feature anymore.
The reality is that there was/is no reddit alternative and right now we're all in this transitory phase where we're all looking for a new home. We'll all just have to wait for the dust to settle. Lemmy isn't perfect but is improving and additionally other alternatives like kbin and tildes are in the works.
To your larger point, much of what you're feeling is the abrupt break in habits. I've been using the gap to develop more positives ones, and it's been great.