Yes, counting time is an obscene practice. It cheapens what should be a heartfelt expression of love and devotion to God, into a cold, calculating metric. Keeping count encourages comparisons, egotism and boasting. It also encourages perfunctory service for the sake of having numbers to put down on a report. It encourages an attitude of making hours instead of making disciples.
The bible says to serve god whole-souled. But how often have you heard a JW pioneer or aux-pioneer commenting that they've made their quota and so they can take the rest of the month off? Are they really giving their best - or just fulfilling a quota. Remember the story of the widow's mite? Counting time violates all that that story stands for because it causes people to be spiritually measured by the quantity of time they put in rather than the subjective effort they put into their ministry. A "poor widow" secularly employed, struggling single parent publisher could be giving 5 hours of quality service out of their want. But they're seen as less spiritual than a "wealthy" pioneer who is a retiree with lots of time on his hands and able to give 70 hours out of their surplus.
Can you imagine a man keeping a written report of how many kisses and love-makings he gives his wife each month? How romantic do you think that would be? "Oh look, my kisses are down. Honey, could you come here a minute, I need to give you 5 kisses to maintain my monthly average. Muah! muah! muah! muah! muah! There, I've made my quota for the month! That means I don't need to kiss you for the rest of the month..."