The week long upgrade is so you will get impatient and spend the money to boost it. The game will never work for those that don't spend money.  All new features added since the introduction of the map boosts are geared towards players spending money on the game.  You may start to play for free but it stays that way for about ten minutes. 

What they should do is allow people to exchange a free to get resource for drachmas. Several games do this and make a boatload of money this way. Eve Online for example lets players buy game credit that can be sold for in game resources. Star Trek Online and Never Winter also have in game free resources that can be exchanged for game money. Everyone wins. The devs get real money, the coiners provide the drachmas in exchange for other resources that free players provide.

But yes. Most of the timers are horrendous because the game is geared to forcing you to buy boosts. Sure the game has to make money but there is making money and being dicks about it. This is the latter, not the former way of doing so.