This whole style of "Write a novel, paint a mural, and produce an opera to explain to your dog how you feel about adding two and two" is very damaging to math education. (Okay, that's maybe a slight exaggeration) I'm not sure why common core would be blamed for that. It goes back well before that. My guess is that some of these already existing bad curriclums (e.g. Everyday Math), just slapped "common core compliant" onto their old products, without changing much.