I just do not get this one.

Back in early release, OK, you could easily finish before mosses were growing. Maybe even trees if you were good. But how in the heck do you finish 1.x in only 18 hours?

I have 144 Drills(T3), plus a crapload of T2s that have not been upgraded, 61 Heaters(T3) multiple rockets (no idea), only 6 grass spreaders, because I only found 6 Lirmas, and 9 (I think) Vegetube(T3) only 3 of which are Golden. so O2 is dragging hind tit. It doesn't even have a + in fromt of the entry on the Terraform screen.

I've built the best I can have at this point, 59 MTi, about 5 hours into the game. I could have flower spreaders, but not until I find either bioplastic or mushroom seeds and RNG has been atrocious this whole playthrough. But even if RNG was being nice, I'm not anywhere close to 1/3 of the way through.

Am I just missing something?

After a little more playing, 18 hours might actually be reasonable, though not for a casual playthrough. So I can't see how that's the average, other than some average among min-maxers. I restarted, focusing on never waiting for anything, building machines constantly, never tearing down anything unless I needed the materials for something pressing and this time through, the moss stage took less than an hour to complete. (Not barren through moss, just moss -- I still don't have the advancement for the T4 machines, or it wouldn't have even taken that long.)

Yes, I still have well over 100 windmills from earlier in the game, but just 70 or so of those bad boys produce about the same as one T1 nuke, and my dozen or so ore extractors are leaving me awash in iron. Make Drills (T3) and Solar(T2) until I get down to the Aluminum for the 2 Heaters(T3), then spam Drills(T2), Solar(T1) and Windmills, in that order. And jetting between my Aluminum Fields, Iridium Cave, Launch Pad, and Biolab takes up all my time. There is still stuff that gets stockpiled or dumped, mostly silicon and/or magnesium.

And I've relaxed on treasure chests. No, I'm not opening up every one, just enough until I get what I need for that stage. Once I get close to unlocking Algae, sure, then try to get bioplastic. Once close to biolab, then try for mushrooms. Not like you need all that many mushrooms growing.

It's turned out a lot better than I thought it would. But still, I doubt building a hundred or more of the current tech level machines is the typical gamer experience.