Asked DS4 how many days a week he would be willing to do aftercare and he said "2" ... so I think you are onto something
I do see value in doing aftercare if the weather is outside friendly and he can run around for an hour or so with other kids. This helps with ... everything. If he is cooped up inside I can just bring him home with me and work from home I guess.
There is some aftercare at the gifted school and he actually likes that a lot. Also explaining that we will keep doing less and less of his preschool as he gets older also helped (maybe he was worried we would try to send him back to the baby school full time).
He is only there 3 days/week now max. As the new routing coalesces I think thing will get easier. Muddling through may be the best we can manage here.