... If my father is anything to go by, universities are working their employees *really* hard right now. That said, I wouldn't expect that to actually speed up response times, overloading people generally doesn't. Maybe they're getting a lot of covid-depression and adjacent dropouts and are low-key teaching for a much smaller body of students? One-day grading is unnatural unless literally the entire thing is automated, though.

(Also, Congratulations! both on excellent progress for an excellent career and on studying with people who care and respond to your emails. Oh how I wish I had these things.)

(Actually I remember seeing memes about grad students forgetting Halloween was a thing because they had grading to do, now that I think of it)