One pot wonders are good for regular cooking. Crock-Pot can make it easier too. Dump it in and come back a lot later.
I think Dan Olsen on Folding Ideas said it best that it is maddening when people talk about cooking at home that they always exclude the clean up.
https://youtu.be/V-a9VDIbZCU?si=IJ1Ffr_luBReNfIV (Folding Ideas, longer video about Jamie Oliver’s war on chicken nuggets)
If you clean as you go, there should be very little cleanup after.
For me, the only cleanup after eating is rinsing the pots/pans that had been soaking while I ate.
Cooking is basically just a choreographed dance, so planning beforehand is important.
I think it depends on how many guests you have for the post-cleanup. However, I generally agree with you.
I sometimes get on my partner’s or family members case about things left around when we’re waiting for the oven or something and they’re like: “I’ll just do it at the end”. For big meals, the large dish rack plus the dish washer (which seems to be another dish rack for us) almost always gets over crowded and we need to use those drying pads.