20 years ago in my country overuse of powder detergents was well known by all the manufacturers; this is when fixed serving sizes were developed as a way to contain the problem and they are also considered more convenient by most consumers. I was working in one of these companies at that time, so I know the subject pretty well.

I'll grant that the pods are often reasonably sized. My main complaint is that they don't provide any detergent to the pre-wash cycle. That can leave a lot of oil for the main wash to process.

I would have assumed that overuse was a desirable outcome for the manufacturer.

There were a couple of very undesired side-effects that manufacturers hate because it was making the consumers angry:

1. Burning the color of clothes.

2. Irritating the skin (hand-was was very common, it still has some use cases even today).

Also there was a move around 2003-2004 to increase the concentration of automatic washer detergents, that was meant to decrease the transportation cost for manufacturers, but overuse was even riskier. I know it was done, somewhere before 2005 when I left that area of business, part of the solution was a big marketing campaign, another part was switching to liquid detergent with a measuring cup, also including a measuring cup in the package with the larger sizes. I don't know what happened later.

If you put less detergent in the packs, they are cheaper per package. This is good, because that means the price can stay the same for more profit.

> I buy 20lb boxes of cheap powder and they last for months.

...is this a commercial kitchen? 20lb is like two loads a day for a year.

Depends on the household size and habits. Daily cooking for 4 or 5 people and sharing two other meals and the occasional baking can quickly fill up the dish washer, especially in those growing phases when the kids are eating like there is no tomorrow ;-)