I disagree. I have all the arch achievements and I thought the timesink was not unreasonable. And i did it early in cataclysm, before it was patched to be easier. There are far harder achievements. If you don't like it, don't do it.

Man. What is with Path of the Titans that people won't LET IT DIE.

It was (or would have been) boring and terrible. When the game's DEVELOPERS say something was bad and that's why it's gone, you'd think folks would take the hint and drop it.

Path of the Titans to the best of my knowledge would have basically been another tier of glyphs, and ones that would have had utility or a throughput impact.
Therefore it would have been another mandatory progression, something which would have been expected of you and something you would have been judged upon.
I have no doubt also that there would have been good and bad choices of the "faction" or group you chose to support or follow for the above reasons.

Archaeology is entirely optional, and offers no significant benefits that would dictate that you take the profession to benefit your end-game performance.

We did not need another forced grind.

I don't understand the continued interest in Path of the Titans. They abandoned it because it was going to be a reiteration of glyphs. They scrapped it and made three glyph tiers instead. Not exactly dying to see a second glyph system added.