Has pre-production become less focused?

This question doesn't apply only to Telugu films, but I believe it ties into two discussion points.

First is the lack of balance in the multi-part films that have been releasing in the recent times. The second half of Salaar Part 1: The Ceasefire felt way more information and event dense than the first half. Pushpa The Rise was going pretty well until Bugga Reddy's entry in the jathara. Even in Kalki 2898 AD having multiple supporting characters and their arcs ending before we emotionally connect with them seemed like filler material. I don't even remember much from Devara Part 1 largely because I got the feeling that there was very blatantly obvious inspiration taken from multiple recent films. Even with Animal which was engaging throughout, they could have ended the film with Ranvijay's father telling him that he's dying of cancer, instead of setting up Animal Park. Game Changer could have been a two part film, but looking at the output I guess Dil Raju might have forced Shankar to restrict it to a single film to cut his losses.

The second point is about the shooting duration. Sankrantiki Vasthunnam can't be compared to these big budget films, but one big talking point after the film's release was that it was shot in 72 days. Nolan planned to shoot Oppenheimer in 85 days but due to budget constraints he completed the shoot in just 57 days! I was just watching Panjaa director Vishnuvardhan's interview with Ram Venkat Srikar, and he told that he shot Shershaah in 60 days.

As a complete outsider I might be completely off, but I believe there needs to be way more collaboration between the key technicians like the writers, director, cinematographer, editor, production designer, action choreographer and also VFX supervisor during the pre-production to ensure that the creative part is largely taken care of, and the principal photography is mostly about implementing that plan in the best way possible.