I think the grind problem is real for many 4E groups and that many of the posters here on this forum are very intelligent DMs who have found ways to minimize the grind and don't see it as the problem that it really can be.
I think the grind problem can be alleviated somewhat.
I played Pathfinder yesterday in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft which is known to be a tough adventure (5 6th level PCs). In encounter 1 (9 foes), I cast Web on 2/3rds of the foes. The Fighter, Ranger, and Cleric took out the rest of the foes. The other Wizard then Fireballed the foes in the Web, seriously damaging them. We then mopped up the heavily damaged foes that had been in the Web in less than 2 rounds. The entire encounter less than 5 full rounds and slightly over 45 minutes to play.
In encounter 2 (8 foes), the two Wizards were stunned for 2 rounds on round 1. Even without the artillery Wizard and the controller Wizard (and things looked dicey at first), the encounter took 4 rounds.
Encounter 3 (10 foes, 5 PCs, 1 NPC) took 3.5 rounds. Glitterdust on round one blinded 5 of the zombies and the rest was mopup with Fire spells and Cleric and NPC Paladin (the Paladin was first encountered in this fight) Channel Energy.
These were not 5 on 5 encounters, but 5+ on 9 on average. The zombies had over 40 hit points, so they were not minion-like. And the encounters still took less than the 6+ average rounds of 4E.
This doesn't happen too often in 4E unless the foes are same level or lower and it especially doesn't happen with higher level 4E foes. I can remember it happening once in our 4E games (out of more than a hundred encounters) AFAIR where the NPC Lich Controller was taken out in 2 rounds with focused fire and without the controller slowing up the PCs, the rest were mopped up in 2 rounds (good dice rolls and several criticals also helped this out).
In 4E, it typically takes 3 to 4 successful hits per foe to take out a same level foe (on average, Strikers require less, Leaders require more). At higher levels for non-Strikers, it's often 5 or 6 successful hits, just based on number of hit points. With a 50% chance to hit, that's often 6 or more rounds because the game is designed that way. Some bad dice rolls on the part of the PCs and the encounter can stretch out.
With 5 PCs and 5 NPCs in the encounter and all of the conditions that are thrown into the mix (and there are a TON of 4E conditions on most rounds), the game is by definition slowed up.
4E is plagued by the conditions and status' in the game system. Dazed, marked, bloodied, combat advantage, immobilized. The list goes on and on.
The difference is the 3E had conditions, but them occurring in the game system was a lot more infrequent. PC spellcasters would sometimes cast a spell that did it and some monsters had some capability, but the Fighters and Rogues and Barbarians weren't doing it too often. In 4E, probably 75% of all monsters have some way in which to hinder foes with an effect and 100% of PCs can do it if designed that way. In 3E, the majority of PCs and NPCs did hit point damage. They didn't daze and immobilize foes as a general rule.
In 3E, flank was obvious, just by looking at the miniatures. That still occurs in 4E, but there are dozens of other ways to get Combat Advantage other than flank and it happens multiple times in every single encounter once one gets past level 2 or so.
So, the players are forced to have some bookkeeping system to keep track of this. Bookkeeping, even fast bookkeeping, takes time.
And in the case of 4E, it's not that everyone has Combat Advantage. One PC might have it, two PCs might have it. So the bookkeeping sometimes has to keep track of which PCs have it and which do not as well. And the bookkeeping has to keep track of when the Combat Advantage ends.
Start of attacker's next turn?
Start of defender's next turn?
End of attacker's next turn?
End of defender's next turn?
Saving throw?
End of the encounter?
In 3E, most effects and spells lasted either to the end of the encounter (or multiple encounters), or until a save. That's a vastly superior system to the plethora of durations in 4E from a bookkeeping perspective.
Even Action Points add to grind in 4E. Instead of 10 standard actions for 5 PCs vs. 5 NPCs in a round, it's 11 if one player uses an Action Point. That round takes longer to happen. It might take a foe out quicker by using the Action Point, but then again, a miss might occur and all it does is increase the actual time of the encounter.
Grind is a feature of 4E. It can be avoided somewhat, but it will occur both due to heavy monster hit point and due to the vast number of conditions and status effects in the game system. There are very few attacks that do half damage on a miss (so a run of bad dice rolls can extend an encounter a lot) and 4E is mostly about damage.
Anyone who thinks that 4E has less bookkeeping is not being objective. The rules were streamlined (less need to look rules up in a book for those DMs who did not have them memorized), but the in combat bookkeeping was increased. That means typically more time per player or DM turn by definition in 4E. The main way to offset this is by taking foes out faster (i.e. increase action economy in the PCs favor), but that doesn't happen in the first half of encounters in 4E (unless the monsters are stunned or blinded and lose their turn) because the monsters have a higher relative number of hit points.
Note: Grind is also dependent on fun level. A given player might play a 2 hour encounter and have a blast and not notice the grind. But, the fact that the encounter took 2 hours might mean that one or more people at the table thinks that the encounter is dragging, even a fun encounter. It's especially problematic that 4E can easily have 10 or more minutes between each player's turn to his next turn (a one hour encounter with 6 rounds means a round every 10 minutes).
