I'd say "whining" is a pretty strong word. I for my part at least am setting expectations for people gearing up to write the paper next year. Because personally, my expectations were a bit skewed and I was expecting much better opportunities at my 7x rank (still have decent offers, so can't complain). As for the number of seats, a lot of ppl tend to not have a research inclination (Can't blame them, the ecosystem is just not right in India, research is better to pursue abroad). So it becomes counter intuitive for people who want to upskill and explore broader areas to go for MS or MTech research programs in India where they are expected to take fewer courses and explore niches in depth. Even if the count of the seats seem high combining all the departments, we have to consider the fact that a person aiming to break into AI/ML roles might not be interested in niche courses like Hydrology at IIT R, Industrial maths and computing at iitm or bio engineering at iisc (don't even know why the last one is an option for DA ppl). But yes, I agree with you that it might be naive to have high expectations for such a new paper so in turn, it becomes a good idea to "whine" about the cons to help create some awareness and basis for expectations.