What Ticks Me Off in Super Paper Mario

Super Paper Mario is an excellent game.  I'll just take that for granted.  One thing, however, is annoying the crap out of me in that game.  The game switches for 2D to 3D modes at the press of a button.  Unfortunately, there is an artificial time limit to spending time in 3-space.  For 20 seconds, you can hang out in 3D, after which you lose health from your meter until you die or turn back to 2-D. This is exactly like a "breath meter" in games with underwater segments.  You have to check 3-D so often so that you should be able to visit it as often and as long as you like.  The 3D timer seems like a very arbitrary way to add difficulty to the game and it feels like lazy programming.