When I cook, I am extremely strategic about what I use, and clean as I go. The dishwasher wouldn't really save me any time based on how I operate in the kitchen.

When my wife cooks, it appears to be her goal to use every fucking dish and utensil we own in the process.

But I don't care. Hell, I'm proud of how successful she is at reaching this apparent goal... because MOST of it can go right in the dishwasher. Now I don't even bother to ask how we have 10 greasy teaspoons after she made chicken.

I have a family and we make a LOT of dirty dishes. The real value is that I don't have to wash them all by hand, even if it takes a couple hours who cares at least I ain't doing it

Mine does a fine job washing off crusty dishes. Mainly need to make sure the temperature is high enough, 50 or ideally 60°C. Also helps against grease build-up in the internals which will make it last longer.

Or maybe your dishwasher just went so hard on the water saving it no longer does its job, which is a real issue sadly

Use normal powder detergent so you can fill the pre wash and run the kitchen sink hot before you start the dishwasher so that the water starts hot. For me it gets even the dishes with dry cement clean most of the time.

Is your dishwasher like 30 miles away? Why would it take you multiple days to run a cycle?