Daniel pointed me by e-mail to this nugget buried in a entirely too long post, which I skipped initially because I don't care for Darker than Black:

2. Figure 17 doomed anime to be consumed in 24 minute bites. While Figure 17 wasn’t a horrible series, it had no business being a 48 minute episode experiment. There was just no reason beyond, “Hey, we can do it!” The narrative didn’t call for it, and they padded it with a lot of filler to get up to cohesive 48 minute episodes. I’m convinced it killed hour long anime since there hasn’t been anymore hour long anime since Figure 17. (The fact that anime are really just gloried infomericals nowadays don’t help either.)

I have never imagined myself living long enough to see Jason writing "narrative didn't call for it". Plus, I disagree. The supposedly filler elements in Figure 17, such as the cows, were a part of the master plan. The episode length was organic to the show as well (or should I say "to the narrative"). Creators completely fooled me into watching the episodes as if they were 24-minute sized.

Although I'm famously stupid, we're talking anime which Lawson seen seven times, cried every time. I didn't see any complaints about the episode length from his direction either.

So, personally, I suspect that the lack of twin-sized episodes has more to do with the rigours of TV broadcast and the decline of OVA outside of porn than any damage Figure 17 dealt to the format. I cannot prove it though.

And the glorified infomericals? This is not so stupid actually... J.P. since elaborated:

But with anime, I don’t really have the same problem seeing how anime is really just a more elaborate late-night infomercial, with the difference being that instead of buying a Flowbee or Juice Tiger or a set of Miracle Blades, it’s selling figures and body pillows. So commodiciation is basically built in.

I think we're done here.