Stuff like that grinds my gears too. Well, if you're like me, you can rent a lot of anime from netflix. There are also several sites where you can legally watch anime like hulu, and joost.
Something that grinds my gears is endless eight. When you have only 14 episodes to a season that fans have been waiting 3 years for, you don't repeat the same episode 8 times. I like all of the references and stuff you put in, but seriously, there's a limit. The eight episode had better make up for all of this.
Another thing that grinds my gears is when anime series drag on. I like it when a series is short and sweet like Death Note, or Code Geass. But for some series, they make scenes longer, and add filler arcs. I don't really care about filler arcs.