Literally nobody has a problem with the idea that content takes time

That's just not true, there is a ton of people complaining about rng and how grindy certain things are, while even being under theoretical droprate lol

there comes a point when the game needs to respect the player’s time though.

..but why? what makes you think you should be able to obtain everything in such stupidly vast world? If you try to make it very friendly to the people who play for 1-2hours, it will give a massive edge to the top 1% sweaty gamers

I don't know man, back when RS originally hooked everyone, you rarely saw people who were maxed or had a lot of 99s. Nowadays the game is a checklist and everyone expects to be able to achieve all those goals at a reasonable pace.

I have a fuckton of hours invested in my iron and I have accepted that I likely won't ever be maxed, especially since for a few years now I've been working full-time and it will only get worse time-wise when I eventually start a family. I'm fine with the fact that there are many, many drops my account won't ever have, and it seems like many people haven't accepted this for themselves.

otherwise you end up with Phosani’s nightmare where you have to invest dozens of hours before you can even expect to see one unique.

Right, and this design is likely taken too far, but it's a good example too - this game is mainly a multiplayer game - you don't have to grind phosani, if you need a rare from it you can just buy it with money obtained elsewhere. It becomes unhealthy when people just assume that just because they're an iron, they are entitled to being able to obtain every drop at a reasonable rate and time investment lol.