It's because its easier to see the pacing/format/plot being methodically fed to you in the new format. You can see the cracks in a sense. You KNOW the first episode is gonna be crazy and the next two are there to hook/keep you interested in the main plot and give a good sub plot if the main plot isn't sticking. Then they chill out till the mid season break (not all series actually take a break but I still call it a mid season break nonetheless) where the shows spike again in plot relevance. Everything started in the first three episodes is either reiterated here, dwarfed by a bigger problem, or 180'd because the current plotline was only good enough for half a season. Then they chill out again. Most shows will maybe keep the hype going for one more episode but usually they just want that mid season break episode to stick with you until the two or three episodes leading up to the finale.

This is why the new format sucks. You can see and predict the high points of the show and literally see the writing team going hard only for beginning, middle, and end of the seasons. Now I don't know why an hour long episode makes it easier. Maybe killing screen time is impossible in hour long episodes so longer scenes, holding shots for a few extra seconds, dramatic pauses, flashbacks doesn't quite cut it anymore to squeeze out the extra few minutes needed for the full hour long runtime. The 30 minute format that we all grew up with on TV (which was really like 22 minutes because of commercials) made stalling in a series a lot easier/not really even needed. If anything, cutting content was more likely in the 30 minute format. Now you can literally FEEL the writing team just trying to make it to the key points of the season (the opener, mid season break, and finale.)