Well .... maybe not ALL about time, but as I started to get at in the previous post (Fish Tanks & Farm Fields...), available player time is a critical element (you can only do so many things).
There has been discussion in other postings about making this or that simpler/easier (faster) to do. This is particularly true of the time it takes to transfer items (be them food, organics, minerals, etc)from storage to personal inventory to totes to personal inventory to buyer etc.
I am all for(!) making some of these processes less tedious. But the point I wish to make is that any time-altering change that is made should be made across the scope of the game, keeping in mind what effect enabling one job to be done faster might have on game strategies that might focus on other parts of the game. For example, if you could sell large lots of ore very simply (and fast), it might not pay to focus on raising & selling food or fish. If, on the other hand, it was easier to sell all items ....
A general point: In the real world it usually takes a lot longer to grow things -- or extract them from the earth and purify them -- than it does to sell them.