I suppose this depends on what level of parental intervention is defined as "help."
I confess to having done the lion's share of work on my DD10's school projects that have involved art. This is partly because the learning value of said activity is questionable at best. It's also because my DD will select a project, select a media (often modeling clay) and then sit at the table rolling clay into a ball, then rolling flat, and repeating for hours on end, accomplishing nothing except drying it out, because she's not sure how to approach it. I end up "helping" by building most of the project while she continues kneading.
DD will set these projects next to those of her peers, some of which clearly look like the child was left completely to their own devices, some looking like they had parental participation, and some looking like the kind of polished, highly-detailed, professional art pieces only an adult could have made. Since my work looks something like the middle group (I don't art), I don't waste a lot of time feeling guilty for my role.
Research papers, on the other hand, I've been involved with very little. In earlier grades, I got involved in directing her to data sources, evaluating their usefulness in a glance, and helping her skim for relevant facts that she can organize. She has this down now. Other than some proofreading in early years, I've never gotten involved with her actual writing process. This is because, unlike making pirate ships, this exercise reflects an important skill that will serve her well throughout life.
I can't say she's been asked for 12 paragraphs, though. That seems excessive.
I would be interested to hear your teachers' perspective on this, because if some children are turning in research papers that look like the polished art pieces in my DD's class, that's a valid complaint. The student learns nothing when the adults do all the work. These teachers should be seeing smaller writing samples from these kids on a near-daily basis, so they should know when the paper doesn't match their style.
