This is me posting as myself, not related to any connection to/knowledge of the current game.
Some games is better/worse than others. I agree 6-7 days is longer than I'd prefer, but attendance here often dwindles over the weekend due to availability, and Sat-Sun deadlines are rare for that reason. The alternative probably would've been Friday. RW's last game had a D1 that lasted for 14 days. 6-7 is pretty typical.
The build-up of day 1, painful as it can be, is by and large to have more of a record going in to D2 - who thinks what, who said what, who might have slipped, who was on the wagon and why, who wasn't on the wagon, etc.
At some point, if you're going to have a D1 quite as short as 2 days, you might as well just skip D1 altogether or have the mod randomly kill someone. Could design a game that flips and starts with a full N0 with all actions open. But given the euro/N.A. split, it may take a full day for some players to even check in, or PM questions they have about their role, etc.
But, and this is very important,
there is zero requirement that things just idle until the deadline approaches. If you want to move it along, make a case for no lynch, or for a particular player. Sitting back and letting everyone else (or the deadline) do the work, at least in the manner you stated, well...
Not to call you out in particular, nor to speak to the current game in particular, but less activity only makes the problem worse, imo. It's a game where movement derives from posting and making decisions from the information that falls out of everyone contributing to the soup. If no one is willing to put anything forward and prefers to turtle, then yes, it's going to get pretty dull.
This game also lacks a handful of the players who would tend to be most active out of the gate to push things along, so it's reliant on others to step out of their zones to push the action, and some people are actually out there trying, but 2-3 more would certainly help.
I will say that 2 of my 3 game designs include features specifically addressed to try and create D1 movement, but ultimately it's down to the players to make the effort to actually make it happen no matter what the mod does.