I have to say, this is pure hyperbole. Yes, the transit scenes go on too long, and more importantly, are repetitive. But to say it’s “disrespectful” is, IMO, way over the top. Leaving aside my dislike of the entire “respect/disrespect” thing that serves as a stand-in for every other type of human interaction these days, the transit scenes are one way of dealing with transitions that allows random events and the monitoring of the timeline. Is it the best way? For many, maybe most gamers, perhaps not, but it definitely does give you a sense of the passage of time, and an incentive to upgrade your drives, if nothing else. I think with more events, more visual variety, and, yes, an option to simply skip from each task to the next in the timeline, it would be fine for most folks.
As to why it wasn’t done differently, I like the idea that the developer simply did not realize how intensely and for such long periods of continuous time we’d play the damn thing. Unlike the issues with hoarding, which IMO they should have foreseen, this one is a lot more understandable, to me.