Blues Brother I am not so sure that “it has never been easier to count time” . For some maybe but I know devout believing Witnesses who cannot bring themselves to write a letter . Whenever I did it in my dub days I found it incredibly boring and the notion that I was just counting time killed any motivation. Those Witnesses, older ones , admit they have slipped into inactivity. It remains to be seen if they can be reactivated in the future.
I agree BB. For the real believers, ones who are not solely social witnesses but take their commission seriously, it is hard to get any real time in. This is especially true in countries where uninvited contact by letter is illegal and you are only allowed to telephone people already known to you. It's certainly difficult to get pre pandemic or pioneer-level time in.
However I do think Watchtower is glad to be using the pandemic as a sort of Trojan horse of an excuse/cover for falling numbers.