Unlikely though it may be, it is accurate.  We've actually had a significant uptick in contributions since 3.9 (about 40% more than usual in the last 30 days), but the focus has been on certain classes of profiles affected by the new variant ability. 

In addition to this, we've focused on keeping contribution processing completely up to date, so nothing is in queue much longer than 48 hours.  We're doing this to reduce collision potentials in variants.

It has always been 48 hours (at least, as long as I can remember).  If there's a consensus to increase it, I have no problem with doing so.

It's not about planning, it's how the system works.  When evaluators log in and do work, the queue allows them to proceed in chronological order, and only stops when the 48-hour window is met.  The evaluators are not always 100% up to date, so it fluctuates between 2-7 days, and sometimes more than that.  Since 3.9, we've focused on keeping it up to date, which is why you've seen a smaller queue recently.  However, it was not at all uncommon to clear the queue before, just intermittent.

If you'd like to see the minimum vote time increased from 48 hours to something longer, you may wish to start a poll and see what others think.