WHY IS CREATING PREP LISTS SO TIME CONSUMING?!?!

This is a rant of frustration, or a real question, or both?

Your complaint is pretty standard for any career that requires organization before an actual event. Most things are the result of careful planning prior to execution, so things go smoothly and appear effortless. It doesn't matter how good a chef you are, if you aren't ready to go when service starts. There are standardized prep forms out there, both one and two column so far as I know. You should also keep an archive of sorts, so you don't have to build yours from absolute scratch every time. Your old ones should contain notes about what worked, what didn't, what you needed more of or less of. You can then refer back to them to see trends, and adapt, or simply plug in to the new plan. Any changes needed on the day can be done then- say if the fish man didn't deliver, and the fish dishes need to be dropped. Otherwise, as most kitchens don't change much from week to week- your prep plan should be fairly straight forward. It might take a few hours, yes- but it sure beats standing there wondering why the chicken is still frozen or the garnish station is out of something- and having hungry diners wait while the prep is being done on the fly.

I am not a chef in a hotel, but this sounds to me like the general curse of the dream job- there's usually a whole bunch of REALLY tedious stuff that you weren't warned about.