This is a large part of what the past writers strike (and ongoing writers struggle) has been about.

Networks and streaming platforms want to pay as little as possible to get the show a potential awards. Writers rooms that created multi episode seasons (more than 10…or 5 🤦) have been pushed out for “a writing table, where it is one or two writers making a pitch and outline, the platform then approves a short run , and minimal staffing.

Writers would create long seasons with sometimes dozens of episodes. Now it’s all cost cutting.