You know how we all complain about how there's "too much anime being made"? Toshifumi Kawase, who directed a ton of anime during the 90s & early 00s, was calling this out as far back as 1998! I am dead serious about this...

This is from the final LD for Next Senki Ehrgeiz:
Q:"Your thoughts about late-night anime? Anything you'd reconsider?"
A: I think we should make anime that adults can watch seriously, & as the number of late-night anime increases, the number of anime as a whole becomes too large"

Ehrgeiz aired in late 1997, a year which saw only 13 late-night anime air. That interview came out in mid-1998, a year which saw ~25 late-night anime air. Kawase was calling out the proliferation (& financial abuse) of late-night anime YEARS before it actually started happening!