I would think the org would manipulate ways to stretch hours, and make it easier to appear there is growth. The carts are a good example of this. Instead of grueling door to door, just stand and drink coffee, and take selfies for 8 hours. Shit, if they had this when I was a teenager I probably would have got a lot more hours lol , lets be honest though, no I wouldn't.
What I wonder, is a lot of super zealous people find an hour "out" in what used to be the RBC, RDC, and now LDC. I know because my pioneer spouse used to rack up her hours doing medial work for the RBC in new york city. It was quite the supplementation to her hours, also many other pioneers did likewise. I mean wouldn't you rather count your jesus panda petting points that way instead of pissing people off at the door?
But with the construction rumors, a lot of people could be losing their hour piggy bank. They will have to go in real service more now. I expect they are going to make it easier and easier to count hours from here going forward. Lets face it, if this was our grandparents cult, the hours would not be so much. They busted their asses.
On a side note, once my wife was so excited for making her time for the year, two of our elders, (one of which was a heavy at bk bethel) came to her and said basically she counted to much of her time in RBC, and she didn't make her time. She was utterly crushed. I felt so bad for her, and disgusted at the petty rules of this cult. Just like jesus would have done right?