A few months ago, I took a hiatus from PvP and PvE and became a DDQ-only player for a while. A few weeks ago, I jumped back into the new PvE system and I now have a much more relaxed method of clearing that I thought I would share.
Current max progression is tuned at 4 clears of each node on each sub. Considering each sub has around 9 nodes (6 main, 3 essential), that is a total of 36 matches/sub on average for a max progression player.
What I do now is I play only the two CP nodes four times along with the required unlocking nodes. This takes on average 13 matches/sub (4+4+5). With the restructured progression, I have found that I am still able to hit the two smaller 5 CP nodes with this method. Of course, adjust accordingly depending on wave nodes, extra unlocking nodes, etc.
I am having a much better time with the reduced number of clears. There have always been complaints about the amount of time required to play this game so this seems relevant. I hope that anyone feeling burnout on PvE can find this to be a more relaxing way to play. 