[AdrianB1]

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.

[michael1999]

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.

[nerdponx]

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

[AdrianB1]

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.

[krageon]

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.